June 11, 2011

Born on this date
Happy Birthday, Vivian Koshman!

1,000 years ago
1011

War
Greek citizens of Bari rose up against the Lombard rebels led by Melus and delivered the city to Basil Mesardonites, Byzantine governor (catepan) of the Catepanate of Italy.

150 years ago
1861

Born on this date
Alexander Peacock. Australian politician. Sir Alexander represented Clunes and Allendale in the Victorian Legislative Assembly (1889-1933), holding several cabinet posts and serving three terms as Premier of Victoria (1901-1902, 1914-1917, April-July 1924). He was Speaker of the Assembly from 1928 until his death on October 7, 1933 at the age of 72; his widow Millie won a by-election for his seat.

130 years ago
1881

Born on this date
Mordecai Kaplan. Lithuanian-born U.S. clergyman. Rabbi Kaplan moved to the New York in 1889 with his mother and sisters. He and his son-in-law Ira Eisentstein founded Reconstructionist Judaism as a movement within Conservative Judaism in the late 1920s, and it became a separate stream of Judaism in 1955. Rabbi Kaplan died on November 8, 1983 at the age of 102.

110 years ago
1901

Born on this date
Cap Fear. U.K.-born Canadian football player. Alfred Henry Fear played outside wing with the Toronto Argonauts (1919-1926); Montreal Winged Wheelers (1927); and Hamilton Tigers (1928-1932), and was a member of Grey Cup championship teams in 1921, 1928, 1929, and 1932. He was elected to the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 1967, and died on February 12, 1978 at the age of 76.

New Zealandiana
The boundaries of the Colony of New Zealand were extended by the United Kingdom to include the Cook Islands. At a civic reception in Auckland for the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York--the future King George V and Queen Mary, John Logan Campbell handed over the deed to land around One Tree Hill/Maungakiekie. The new park was named Cornwall Park in honour of the royal couple.

100 years ago
1911

Baseball
Heinie Zimmerman drove in 9 runs with 2 three-run home runs, a two-run triple, and a single, and Jimmy Sheckard scored 5 runs as the Chicago Cubs routed the Boston Rustlers 20-2 at West Side Park in Chicago.

80 years ago
1931

Canadiana
The Canadian Parliament voted to proclaim Remembrance Day, November 11, as a general holiday.

75 years ago
1936

Died on this date
Robert E. Howard, 30. U.S. author. Mr. Howard wrote short stories that appeared in pulp magazines such as Weird Tales. He created the character Conan the Barbarian, and is known as the father of the "sword and sorcery" genre, achieving commercial success from 1928 until his death. Mr. Howard was devoted to his mother, and when he found out that she was dying from tuberculosis and would not regain consciousness, he fatally shot himself in the head. His mother died the next day.

Art
The London International Surrealist Exhibition opened at New Burlington Galleries.

Politics and government
Liberal Party leader Adélard Godbout was sworn in as Premier of Quebec, replacing Louis-Alexandre Taschereau, who had resigned amidst a scandal. Mr. Godbout called an election for August 17, 1936.

80 years ago
1941

Died on this date
Dan Beard, 90. U.S. outdoorsman. "Uncle Dan" was an engineer, surveyor and artist who founded the youth program Sons of Daniel Boone in 1905, merging it into the Boy Scouts of America in 1910. He was involved with scouting in the United States until his death, 10 days before his 91st birthday.

War
London and Stockholm sources reported that German troops were concentrated along the long Soviet frontier with three army corps on the Bessarabian border. British and Free French forces continued their advance into Syria.

Politics and government
Bolivian President Enrique Penaranda accepted the resignation of his entire cabinet, which quit after receiving reports that Nazis were planning general strikes.

Chilean President Pedro Aguirre Cerda named five new ministers to replace Radical Party members who had resigned the day before.

Canadiana
The Dominion Bureau of Statistics (DBS) issued results of the 1941 census, showing that Canada's population had reached 11,506,655.

Economics and finance
U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt informed Congress that $4,277,412,879 of the $7-billion Lend-Lease appropriation had been allocated for aid to the Allies in the 90 days since the act had been passed.

Business
The Cleveland Rams of the National Football League were sold by a local ownership group to grocery store magnate Dan Reeves and Robert Levy for $135,000.

Labour
U.S. federal mediators settled the one-day Congress of Industrial Organizations strike at the Bohn Aluminum and Brass Corporation in Detroit.

60 years ago
1951

On television tonight
Lights Out, on NBC
Tonight's episode: Pit of the Dead, starring Joseph Buloff, John Dall, and Beatrice Kraft

Married on this date
Actress Hedy Lamarr married nightclub owner Ted Stauffer in West Los Angeles.

Aviation
The U.S. Navy's experimental Douglas D-558-2 Skyrocket, piloted by Bill Bridgeman, set world records for speed (1,300 miles per hour) and altitude (70,000 feet) at Edwards Air Force Base, California.

Diplomacy
Iranian Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh rejected a personal plea from U.S. President Harry Truman that Iran negotiate with Britain on Iran's oil nationalization program.

Scandal
A U.S. district court in Washington, D.C. gave U.S. Representative Walter Brehm (Republican--Ohio) a $5,000 fine and a 5-15-month suspended prison sentence for accepting a salary kickback from an office worker.

40 years ago
1971

Hit parade
#1 single in New Zealand (RIANZ): I Am...I Said--Neil Diamond (3rd week at #1)

#1 single in West Germany (Media Control): Butterfly--Danyel Gérard (4th week at #1)

South Africa's Top 10 (Springbok Radio)
1 Joy to the World--Three Dog Night
2 If Not for You--Olivia Newton-John
3 Put Your Hand in the Hand--Alan Garrity
4 Vicki--Lance James
5 The Seagull's Name was Nelson--Des & Dawn
6 Funny Funny--The Sweet
7 Mozart: Symphony No. 40 In G Minor K.550 1° Movement (Allegro Molto)--Waldo de Los Rios
8 Have You Ever Seen the Rain--Creedence Clearwater Revival
9 Understanding--Peanutbutter Conspiracy
10 Theme from Love Story--Francis Lai Orchestra

Singles entering the chart were It Don't Come Easy by Ringo Starr (#14); and Rosetta by Fame and Price Together (#20).

Vancouver's Top 10 (CKLG)
1 Indian Reservation (The Lament of the Cherokee Reservation Indian)--Raiders (3rd week at #1)
2 Brown Sugar--The Rolling Stones
3 It's Too Late--Carole King
4 It Don't Come Easy--Ringo Starr
5 Never Ending Song of Love--Delaney & Bonnie & Friends
6 Double Lovin'--The Osmonds
7 When You're Hot, You're Hot--Jerry Reed
8 Rainy Days and Mondays--Carpenters
9 Superstar--Murray Head with the Trinidad Singers
10 Signs--Five Man Electrical Band

Singles entering the chart were Lady Dawn by the Bells (#24); Talking in Your Sleep by Gordon Lightfoot (#26); Puppet Man by Tom Jones (#28); and Draggin' the Line by Tommy James (#30).

Vancouver's Top 10 (CKVN)
1 Never Ending Song of Love--Delaney & Bonnie & Friends
2 It's Too Late/I Feel the Earth Move--Carole King
3 It Don't Come Easy--Ringo Starr
4 Indian Reservation (The Lament of the Cherokee Reservation Indian)--Raiders
5 Hot Love--T. Rex
6 When You're Hot, You're Hot--Jerry Reed
7 Signs--Five Man Electrical Band
8 Done Too Soon--Neil Diamond
9 Brown Sugar--The Rolling Stones
10 High Time We Went--Joe Cocker

Singles entering the chart were Change Partners by Stephen Stills (#25); You've Got a Friend by James Taylor (#26); Try Some, Buy Some/Tandoori Chicken by Ronnie Spector (#27); Chicken Bone Bone by the Manhattan Transfer and Gene Pistilli (#28); Don't Pull Your Love by Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds (#29); and Make it Better by Jericho (#30).

Protest
The U.S. government forcibly removed the last 15 holdouts of the American Indian occupation of Alcatraz, ending 19 months of control.

Politics and government
Jack Davis became Canada's first Minister of the Environment, heading the new department of Environment Canada.

Environment
Canada and the U.S.A. agreed to a pollution control program in the Great Lakes.

30 years ago
1981

Disasters
A magnitude 6.9 earthquake at Golbaf, Iran, killed at least 2,000 people.

Football
CFL
Pre-season
Montreal (0-2) 17 @ Ottawa (2-0) 18

25 years ago
1986

Hit parade
#1 single in Sweden (Topplistan): The Final Countdown--Europe (3rd week at #1)

At the movies
Ferris Bueller's Day Off, written and directed by John Hughes, and starring Matthew Broderick, opened in theatres.



Died on this date
Chesley Bonestell, 98. U.S. artist. Mr. Bonestell was known as the "Father of Modern Space Art" for his paintings of astronomical scenes that appeared in books such as The Conquest of Space (1949, written by Willy Ley) and in movies such as Destination Moon (1950). He was active until his death.

20 years ago
1991

Died on this date
Cromwell Everson, 65. S.A. composer. Mr. Everson wrote instrumental and chamber works, but was best known for his vocal music, including song cycles and Klutaimnestra (1967), the first opera in Afrikaans.

10 years ago
2001

Died on this date
Amalia Mendoza Garcia, 77. Miss Mendoza was a ranchero and bolero singer who recorded 36 albums and had numerous hit singles from the late 1950s through the early 1980s. She died 29 days before her 78th birthday.

Timothy McVeigh, 33. U.S. terrorist. Mr. McVeigh was a U.S. Army soldier who was honourably discharged after serving in the Gulf War in 1991. He had trouble adjusting to life after the war, became convinced that a microchip had been planted in his body, and sought revenge against the U.S. government for its actions in the incidents at Ruby Ridge (1992) and Waco (1993). Mr. McVeigh was convicted in 1997 of building and delivering the bomb that had killed 168 people at the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995. Despite the fact that witnesses at his trial said that Mr. McVeigh was just one of the people in the rented truck on the day of the bombing, he was the only one executed, by lethal injection at the federal penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana. He was the first person in 38 years to be executed by the U.S. federal government.