June 28, 2011

Born on this date
Happy Birthday, James Remnant and Minnie de Ramos!

1,260 years ago
751

Born on this date
Carloman I. King of the Franks, 768-771. Carloman I inherited half of the Kingdom of the Franks with his older brother Charlemagne upon the death of their father Pepin the Short. The brothers were opposed to each other, and seemed to be on the verge of war when Carloman suddenly died, perhaps from a severe nosebleed, at the age of 20 on December 4, 771 at the age of 20. Carloman I's death allowed Charlemagne to take all of Francia and begin his expansion into other kingdoms.

550 years ago
1461

Britannica
Edward IV was crowned King of England at Westminster.

520 years ago
1491

Born on this date
Henry VIII. King of England, 1509-1547; Lord of Ireland, 1509-1542; King of Ireland, 1542-1547. Henry VIII, the son of Henry VII, was the second monarch of the Tudor dynasty. He was known for his six marriages; his attempt to obtain an annulment of his first marriage, to Catherine of Aragon, led to a dispute with Pope Clement VII, and ultimately led to the founding of the Church of England as a body separate from the Roman Catholic Church. King Henry VIII was a man of letters, and a talented musician. He has been credited--perhaps erroneously--as the composer of the folk ballad Greensleeves, but did not write the music hall song I'm Henry VIII, I Am. King Henry was athletic in his younger years, but a wound suffered in a jousting match led to further health problems, perhaps including the gross obesity that characterized him in his later years. King Henry VIII died on January 28, 1547 at the age of 55, and was succeeded on the throne by his son Edward VI.

175 years ago
1836

Died on this date
James Madison, 85. 4th President of the United States of America, 1809-1817. Mr. Madison, acknowledged as the "Father of the Constitution," died at his estate at Montpelier, Virginia. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives (1789-1797) and as Secretary of State in the administration of President Thomas Jefferson (1801-1809). Mr. Madison was President during the War of 1812 and even saw brief action at the front.

360 years ago
1651

War
The Battle of Berestechko between forces of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Ukrainian Cossacks began in what is now part of Ukraine.

180 years ago
1831

Born on this date
Joseph Joachim. Hungarian musician and composer. Mr. Joachim was one of the most renowned classical violinists of the 19th century, and was associated with Johannes Brahms and Robert and Clara Schumann. Mr. Joachim composed more than two dozen works, many for violin. His best-known work was Violin Concerto No. 2 in D Minor, the "Hungarian concerto." Mr. Joachim died on August 15, 1907 at the age of 76.

170 years ago
1841

Ballet
Giselle by Adolphe Adam received its premiere performance by the Paris Opera Ballet in the Salle Le Peletier, with Carlotta Grisi in the title role.

140 years ago
1871

Economics and finance
The Dominion Bank opened its first branch on King Street in Toronto.

130 years ago
1881

Died on this date
Jules Armand Dufaure, 82. Prime Minister of France, 1871-1873, 1876, 1877-1879. Mr. Dufaure was a moderate republican who was first elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1834, and held several cabinet posts before leaving public life during the Second French Empire (1852-1870). He became a member of the National Assembly in 1871, and served three short terms as Prime Minister. Mr. Dufaure was worn out by opposition, leading to his retirement from politics in February 1879.

Diplomacy
The Austro–Serbian Alliance of 1881 was secretly signed in Belgrade. The convention effectively turned Serbia into a vassal state of Austria-Hungary and meant her accession by proxy to the subsequent Triple Alliance (1882).

Medicine
Elizabeth Robinson of Christchurch became the first registered female pharmacist in New Zealand.

120 years ago
1891

Born on this date
Esther Forbes. U.S. authoress. Miss Forbes wrote historical and children's novels; her best-known work was the novel Johnny Tremain (1943), for which she received the Newbery Award. Her few works of non-fiction included the biography Paul Revere and the World He Lived In (1942), for which she received the Pulitzer Prize for History. Miss Forbes died of rheumatic heart disease on August 12, 1967 at the age of 76.

110 years ago
1901

Canadiana
Patagonian Welsh settlers from Argentina arrived in Saskatchewan.

100 years ago
1911

Space
The Nakhla meteorite, the first one to suggest signs of aqueous processes on Mars, fell to Earth, landing in Egypt.

90 years ago
1921

Died on this date
Charles Bonaparte, 70. U.S. politician. Mr. Bonaparte, a great-nephew of French Emperor Napoleon, was a lawyer in Baltimore and an activist for progressive causes, founding the Reform League of Baltimore in 1885 and co-founding the National Municipal League in 1894. A Republican, Mr. Bonaparte served in the cabinet of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt as Secretary of the Navy (1905-1906) and Attorney General (1906-1909). In the latter post, he battled the tobacco monopoly, and in 1908 founded the Bureau of Investigation, which in 1935 was renamed the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Mr. Bonaparte died 19 days after his 70th birthday.

70 years ago
1941

Hit parade
#1 single in the U.S.A. (Billboard): My Sister and I--Jimmy Dorsey and His Orchestra with Bob Eberly (2nd week at #1)

War
The U.S.S.R. claimed that 4,000 Soviet and German tanks were engaged in a great battle in western Ukraine.

Defense
The U.S. War Department disclosed that the Army had developed a secret radio beam device, similar to a British device already in use, for spotting approaching enemy aircraft. The U.S. Senate and House of Representatives passed and sent to President Franklin D. Roosevelt the $10,384,821,624 Army appropriation bill for 1942, the largest single appropriations measure in history.

Diplomacy
The Peruvian government banned the dissemination of propaganda by foreign diplomatic and consular officials in favour of any belligerent country.

Politics and government
U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Walter George (Democrat--Georgia) criticized the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt for its "totalitarian methods" in its defense policies.

Texas Governor W. Lee "Pappy" O'Daniel (Democrat) defeated U.S. Representative Lyndon Johnson (Democrat--Texas) by 1,311 votes in a special election for a seat in the United States Senate.

The Chinese government named American Asia expert Owen Lattimore as a special political adviser.

City College of New York faculty member Morris Schappes was convicted in New York of perjury during his testimony on the Communist movement before the Rapp-Coudert committee.

Energy
The U.S. Federal Power Commission declared an electric power emergency in the southeastern United States, and ordered that the use of electricity for all non-essential and non-defense purposes be curtailed.

Religion
The first revision of the 1891 Baltimore Catechism of the Roman Catholic Church was published with simplifications and modernized answers.

60 years ago
1951

At the movies
No Highway in the Sky, directed by Henry Koster, and starring James Stewart, Marlene Dietrich, Glynis Johns, and Jack Hawkins, opened in theatres in the United Kingdom.





Died on this date
Leroy Wilson, 50. U.S. corporate executive. Mr. Wilson, President of American Telephone and Telegraph Company since 1948, died in New York.

World events
Archbishop Josef Groesz, who succeeded Josef Cardinal Mindszenty as head of the Roman Catholic Church in Hungary, was convicted in Budapest of plotting to overthrow the government with U.S. aid, and was sentenced to 15 years in jail.

Diplomacy
U.S. President Harry Truman named Navy Secretary Francis P. Matthews to succeed George Garrett as U.S. Ambassador to Ireland.

Oil
Iranian Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh appealed in a letter to U.S. President Truman for American support against Britain in the oil nationalization dispute. The U.S. government approved a plan by 18 oil companies to supply Western Europe with oil if Iranian supplies were cut off.

Business
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission ordered the American Tobacco Company to stop false advertising claims that Lucky Strike cigarettes were less irritating to the throat than other brands or were preferred "two to one" by tobacco experts.

50 years ago
1961

Politics and government
U.S. President John F. Kennedy addressed Berlin and other issues at a news conference in Washington.



40 years ago
1971

Hit parade
#1 single in Australia (Kent Music Report): Eagle Rock--Daddy Cool

#1 single in Japan (Oricon Singles Chart): Mata Au Hi Made--Kiyohiko Ozaki (7th week at #1)

#1 single in Spain (PROMUSICAE): Qué Será (Che Sará)--José Feliciano (7th week at #1)

Died on this date
Franz Stangl, 63. Austrian war criminal. SS-Hauptsturmführer Stangl was a federal policeman who joined the Austrian Nazi Party in 1931 and joined the Schutzstaffel (SS) in May 1938. He was involved with the Nazis' T-4 euthanasia program during Wolrd War II, and was commandant of the extermination camps of Sobibor (April-August 1942) and Treblinka (September 1942-August 1943) in Nazi-occupied Poland. SS-Hauptsturmführer Stangl helped to organize the campaign against Yugoslav partisans and Jews in Trieste from August 1943 until early 1945, when he returned to Vienna because of illness. He was imprisoned by U.S. authorities after the war because of his suspected involvement with T-4, but escaped through a "ratline" to Syria, and then to Brazil, where he lived with his wife and children and worked with Volkswagen do Brasil, under his own name. SS-Hauptsturmführer Stangl was tracked down by Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal and was finally arrested in 1967; he was extradited to West Germany, and convicted in December 1970 of the mass murder of a million people. He was six months into the maximum sentence of life imprisonment in Düsseldorf when he died of heart failure, 19 hours after completing 70 hours of interviews with journalist Gitta Sereni, which concluded with him finally admitting his guilt.

30 years ago
1981

Hit parade
#1 single in New Zealand (RIANZ): Stars on 45--Stars on 45

#1 single in Switzerland: Stars on 45--Stars on 45 (6th week at #1)

Died on this date
Terry Fox, 22. Canadian hero. Mr. Fox, a native of Winnipeg who later moved with his family to Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, was a runner and basketball player in high school before enrolling at Simon Fraser University as a kinesiology student. He lost his right leg to cancer in 1977, but continued to run with a prosthesis, and played wheelchair basketball, helping the Vancouver Cable Cars win three straight national championships and earning all-star recognition. Mr. Fox departed St. John's, Newfoundland on April 12, 1980 to begin the Marathon of Hope across Canada to raise money for cancer research. Unfortunately, the cancer returned after a few months, and he was forced to give up his effort on September 1, 1980 in Thunder Bay, Ontario, long before reaching his goal. Mr. Fox returned to British Columbia, where he died, a month before his 23rd birthday. On September 13, 1981, the first annual Terry Fox Run was held, and the event continues throughout Canada to this day.

Music
Roy Orbison was in concert at the Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium in Edmonton, and this blogger and his brother were in attendance. Roy was great, but the opening act was an untalented comedian whose name I've long forgotten. Tickets cost $12.50 each.

Terrorism
73 leading members of Iran's Islamic Republic Party were killed when a bomb exploded at the party's headquarters in Tehran.

25 years ago
1986

Hit parade
#1 single in Italy (FIMI): Live to Tell--Madonna (7th week at #1)

#1 single in Flanders (Ultratop 50): Wonderful World--Sam Cooke

#1 single in the Netherlands (De Nederlandse Top 40): What Have You Done for Me Lately--Janet Jackson (2nd week at #1)

#1 single in Ireland (IRMA): Papa Don't Preach--Madonna

#1 single in the U.K.: Spirit in the Sky--Doctor and the Medics (4th week at #1)

#1 single in the U.S.A. (Billboard): On My Own--Patti LaBelle and Michael McDonald (3rd week at #1)

U.S.A. Top 10 (Cash Box)
1 On My Own--Patti LaBelle and Michael McDonald (3rd week at #1)
2 Live to Tell--Madonna
3 There’ll Be Sad Songs (To Make You Cry)—Billy Ocean
4 No One is to Blame—Howard Jones
5 Crush on You—The Jets
6 Holding Back the Years—Simply Red
7 I Can’t Wait--Nu Shooz
8 A Different Corner—George Michael
9 Who's Johnny--El DeBarge
10 Invisible Touch--Genesis

Singles entering the chart were Papa Don't Preach by Madonna (#39); Rumbleseat by John Cougar Mellencamp (#78); Venus by Bananarama (#82); Rock 'n' Roll to the Rescue by the Beach Boys (#84); Taken In by Mike & the Mechanics (#86); The Captain of her Heart by Double (#87); and I Wouldn't Lie by Yarbrough and Peoples (#90).

Canada’s Top 10 (RPM)
1 On My Own—Patti LaBelle and Michael McDonald
2 Live to Tell--Madonna
3 There’ll Be Sad Songs (To Make You Cry)—Billy Ocean
4 A Different Corner—George Michael
5 Greatest Love of All--Whitney Houston
6 Holding Back the Years—Simply Red
7 The Power of Love--Jennifer Rush
8 What Have You Done for Me Lately--Janet Jackson
9 No One is to Blame—Howard Jones
10 I Can't Wait--Nu Shooz

Singles entering the chart were Sweet Freedom by Michael McDonald (#81); One Step Closer to You by Gavin Christopher (#92); Anything for Love by Gordon Lightfoot (#93); A Kind of Magic by Queen (#95); That Girl is Gone by David Pack (#96); and Kind Words by Joan Armatrading (#98).

20 years ago
1991

Politics and government
Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher announced that she would resign her seat in the House of Commons and would not run in the next general election.

The governments of Canada, British Columbia, and B.C. first nations set up a commission to coordinate treaty negotiations.

Business
The Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission supported the right of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation to close and cut back operations at 11 stations.

Scandal
Patricia Starr, a former political fundraiser for the Liberal Party of Ontario, was sentenced to six months in jail for fraud and breach of trust in dealing with the provincial government.

10 years ago
2001

Died on this date
Mortimer Adler, 98. U.S. philosopher. Mr. Adler, one of the best-known American philosophers of the 20th century, wrote such books as How to Read a Book (1940); Great Ideas from the Great Books (1961); and How to Think About the Great Ideas (2000).

World events
Former Yugoslavian President Slobodan Milosevic was handed over to the United Nations war crimes tribunal.

Politics and government
Former federal cabinet minister Iona Campagnolo was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of British Columbia.

Environment
The Supreme Court of Canada ruled that municipalities could ban the use of lawn pesticides and herbicides.