December 6, 2011

590 years ago
1421

Born on this date
Henry VI. King of England, 1422-1461, 1470-1471. Henry VI acceded to the throne as an infant upon the death of his father Henry V, and was declared fit to rule in 1437. As a result of the Treaty of Troyes, he was regarded as King Henri II of France, but his claim to the French throne was disputed. Henry VI married Margaret of Anjou, niece of King Charles VII of France, in 1445; King Henry frequently suffered from mental instability, and Queen Margaret acted as the power behind the throne. King Henry VI inherited the Hundred Years' War, and his reign saw the gradual loss of English lands in France. His cousin Richard, Duke of York opposed him; in 1465, Richard's son Edward's forces captured King Henry, imprisoned him in the Tower of London, and deposed him, ruling as King Edward IV. King Henry VI regained the throne in 1470, but Edward IV was restored to the throne in April 1471, killing King Henry's only son Edward of Westminster in the Battle of Tewkesbury. Henry VI was imprisoned again, and died in the Tower of London on May 21, 1471 at the age of 49, possibly killed on the orders of King Edward IV.

180 years ago
1831

Politics and government
U.S. President Andrew Jackson delivered his third annual State of the Union message to Congress. Subjects included agriculture and foreign relations.

130 years ago
1881

Politics and government
U.S. President Chester Arthur delivered his first annual State of the Union message to Congress. Subjects included foreign relations and the economy.

110 years ago
1901

Born on this date
Georgy Malenkov. Chairman of the Council of Ministers (Premier) of the U.S.S.R., 1953-1955. Mr. Malenkov joined the Communist Party in 1920 and became Soviet Premier after the death of Josef Stalin in 1953, but was forced out of office by Nikita Khrushchev in February 1955. He failed in a palace coup attempt against Mr. Khrushchev in 1957, was exiled to Kazakhstan, and expelled from the party in 1961. Mr. Malenkov eventually returned to Moscow and maintained a low profile until his death on January 14, 1988 at the age of 86.

100 years ago
1911

Crime
A Calgary judge convicted two dairy delivery men for theft after they removed a rival firm's milk bottles from doorsteps and milk chutes in order to get annoyed customers to switch companies.

90 years ago
1921

Died on this date
Said Halim Pasha, 56-57. Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire, 1913-1917. Said Halim Pasha was the grandson of Muhammad Ali Pasha, widely regarded as the founder of modern Egypt. Said Halim Pasha succeeded Mahmud Shevket Pasha following his assassination, and was both Grand Vizier and Foreign Minister. He signed the Ottoman-German Alliance in 1914 and signed deportation orders for the Armenian population, claiming that reports of arrests and deportations were being greatly exaggerated. Said Halim Pasha lost his position as Foreign Minister in 1915, and was forced out as Grand Vizier in 1917 amidst clashes with the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP). His signature on the Ottoman-German Alliance led to accusations of treason during courts-martial after World War I. Said Halim Pasha was exiled to a prison in Malta, but was acquitted in 1921 and released. He moved to Sicily, and was in Rome when he was assassinated by Arshavir Shirakian, an agent of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, for his role in the Armenian genocide.

War
The Anglo-Irish Treaty was signed in London by British and Irish representatives, officially ending the Irish War of Independence.

On the radio
Toronto radio station CHCB broadcast the federal election results in co-operation with The Toronto Daily Star. The experimental Marconi station apparently went off the air forever five months later.

Politics and government
The Liberal Party, led by W.L. Mackenzie King, captured 118 of 235 House of Commons seats--a bare majority--in the Canadian federal election. The Progressive Party, led by T.A. Crerar, won 58 seats in its first federal campaign. The governing Conservatives--formally known as the National Liberal and Conservative Party, a holdover from the Unionist government of World War I--won just 49 seats, down from 153 in 1917. Prime Minister Arthur Meighen, a Conservative, was defeated in his bid for re-election in his Manitoba riding of Portage La Prairie. The Labour Party, led by J.S. Woodsworth, won 3 seats. The remaining representation in the House of Commons was: Independent--2; United Farmers of Alberta--2; United Farmers of Ontario--1; Independent Conservative--1; Independent Progressive--1. It was the first federal election in which the majority of women in Canada were allowed to vote, and Progressive candidate Agnes Macphail became the first woman elected to the House of Commons, representing the Ontario riding of Grey-Southeast. The new government officially took office on December 29, 1921.

U.S. President Warren G. Harding delivered his first annual State of the Union address to Congress. Subjects included relations among the various branches of government; tariffs; and relations between capital and labour.

80 years ago
1931

Football
NFL
Green Bay (12-2) 6 @ Chicago Bears (8-4) 7
New York (6-6-1) 19 @ Brooklyn (2-12) 6

75 years ago
1936

Football
CRU
The Regina Roughriders, champions of the Western Interprovincial Football Union, decided not to play the Sarnia Imperials, winners of the previous day's eastern final, for the Grey Cup on December 12. The Roughriders had five American players on their roster who, under a ruling adopted by the CRU earlier in the year, were not eligible to play in the Grey Cup game. The Roughriders had originally refused to play for the Grey Cup under such a restriction, but had then changed their minds and agreed to accept the condition. However, when they did so, five members of the Western Canada Rugby Union's executive announced their resignations. Without the support of the WCRU, the Roughriders thought it best to decline to travel to Sarnia to play for the Grey Cup. The Imperials were thus the Grey Cup champions for the second time in the previous three years, and their eastern final win over the Ottawa Rough Riders on December 5 went into the record books as the Grey Cup game.

70 years ago
1941

Hit parade
#1 single in the U.S.A. (Billboard): Chattanooga Choo Choo--Glenn Miller and his Orchestra (Vocal refrain by Tex Beneke and the Four Modernaires) (2nd week at #1)

Movies
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Corp. suspended the showing of Two-Faced Woman, which had opened in theatres on November 30, after December 16, 1941, pending revision of the film. The movie had been banned in Providence and Boston, and authorities in Chicago, Milwaukee, and Omaha had ordered cuts to be made in the film before it could play in those cities. Two-Faced Woman had also been condemned by the Catholic Legion of Decency and New York Roman Catholic Archbishop Francis Spellman.

War
The United Kingdom announced at 1 A.M. that a state of war with Finland, Hungary and Romania existed after those three countries had rejected a British ultimatum to halt their attacks on Russia. British Security Co-ordination (BSC) head William Stephenson opened Special Training School 103--better known as Camp X--near Whitby and Oshawa, Ontario, for the purpose of training Allied Secret Agents for the war. General Georgy Zhukov led Soviet troops in a strike with 100 divisions in a counterattack against the German force moving on Moscow.

Diplomacy
U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt sent a personal message to Emperor Hirohito of Japan appealing for peace, amid reports that Japanese troops were sailing toward Thailand.

Defense
U.S. Navy authorities in the Panama Canal Zone reported that they were investigating rumours that Axis raiders disguised as Japanese merchant ships were using Port Callao, Peru as a base.

The U.S. Navy ordered six Finnish ships in American ports put under protective custody.

U.S. Navy Secretary Frank Knox said in his annual report that the Navy was "second to none."

Transportation
Two Pan Am Airways Clippers left Miami with a total of 30 passengers to inaugurate air service to Africa.

Labour
The United Brotherhood of Welders, Cutters and Helpers threatened to call a nationwide strike of its 75,000 members unless U.S. President Roosevelt halted alleged American Federation of Labor discrimination against the union, which was seeking autonomy.

Track and field
NCAA
The Big Ten athletic conference in Chicago abolished the javelin event as harmful because it frequently caused back and shoulder injuries among contestants.

60 years ago
1951

Died on this date
Harold Ross, 59. U.S. journalist. Mr. Ross wrote for various newspapers before he and yeast heir Raoul Fleischmann co-founded The New Yorker in 1925. Mr. Ross served as the magazine's editor-in-chief until his death from heart failure while undergoing surgery to remove a lung.

Movies
Argentina lifted a four-year ban on Soviet-made films.

War
Communist negotiators at Panmunjom refused to consider an exchange of prisoners until their truce-enforcement plan was accepted.

Defense
U.K. Prime Minister Winston Churchill told the House of Commons that Britain could not complete its $13.16-billion defense program on schedule in 1953, but would "get on as fast as we can."

Diplomacy
The United Nations General Assembly elected Pakistan and Chile to replace India and Ecuador as Security Council members for 1952-53.

Protest
The Egyptian government banned all public demonstrations to minimize violence resulting from the Suez clashes with British forces.

A five-hour battle between Iranian Communists and Nationalist Party youths in Tehran left 5 people dead and 200 injured.

Politics and government
Venezuelan security forces arrested 12 members of the outlawed Democratic Action Party, seizing bombs and shutting down a radio station in Maracaibo.

U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy (Republican--Wisconsin) charged that a Senate Elections subcommittee was spending "tens of thousands of dollars" to investigate his background. The subcommittee was considering demands by Sen. William Benton (Democrat--Connecticut) that Sen. McCarthy be ousted from the Senate.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Dean Rusk resigned in order to succeed Chester Barnard as president of the Rockefeller Foundation when the latter retired in 1952.

Boxing
World heavyweight champion Jersey Joe Walcott was awarded the Edward J. Neil Plaque in New York as Boxer of the Year.

50 years ago
1961

At the movies
El Cid, directed by Anthony Mann, and starring Charlton Heston and Sophia Loren, received its premiere screening at the Metropole Theatre, Victoria, London.



Died on this date
Frantz Fanon, 36. Martinique-born French psychiatrist and philosopher. Dr. Fanon grew up in Martinique when it was ruled by Vichy French sailors who collaborated with the Nazis and abused the local population; his experiences influenced his subsequent ideas. He practiced psychiatry in colonial Algeria in the 1950s, and formulated a model for community psychology, believing that many mental-health patients would do better if they were integrated into their family and community instead of being treated with institutionalized care. Dr. Fanon increasingly turned against French colonial rule; he was expelled from Algeria and moved to Tunis, where he joined the Front de libération nationale (National Liberation Front) (FLN), supporting the use of violence in Algeria's struggle for independence from France. He developed leukemia, and died while being treated at a National Institutes of Health facility in Bethesda, Maryland, having been brought to the United States by the Central Intelligence Agency. Dr. Fanon's ideas, expressed in books such as Peau noire, masques blancs (Black Skin, White Masks) (1952) and Les Damnés de la Terre (The Wretched of the Earth) (1961) have inspired revolutionary movements throughout the world.

40 years ago
1971

Hit parade
#1 single in Australia (Kent Music Report): Maggie May--Rod Stewart (2nd week at #1)

#1 single in Japan (Oricon Singles Chart): Ame no Midōsuji--Ouyang Fei Fei (5th week at #1)

#1 single in Spain (PROMUSICAE): Mammy Blue--Pop-Tops (7th week at #1)

Football
NFL
Kansas City (8-3-1) 26 @ San Francisco (7-5) 17

30 years ago
1981

Hit parade
#1 single in New Zealand (RIANZ): Physical--Olivia Newton-John

#1 single in Switzerland: Physical--Olivia Newton-John (2nd week at #1)

25 years ago
1986

Hit parade
#1 single in Italy (FIMI): Notorious--Duran Duran (4th week at #1)

#1 single in Flanders (Ultratop 50): Don't Leave Me This Way--The Communards (4th week at #1)

#1 single in the Netherlands (De Nederlandse Top 40): Walk Like an Egyptian--Bangles

#1 single in Ireland (IRMA): The Final Countdown--Europe (2nd week at #1)

#1 single in the U.K. (New Musical Express): The Final Countdown--Europe

#1 single in the U.S.A. (Billboard): The Next Time I Fall--Peter Cetera with Amy Grant

U.S.A. Top 10 (Cash Box)
1 You Give Love a Bad Name--Bon Jovi
2 Human--Human League
3 The Next Time I Fall--Peter Cetera with Amy Grant
4 The Way it Is--Bruce Hornsby and the Range
5 True Blue--Madonna
6 Hip to Be Square--Huey Lewis and the News
7 Everybody Have Fun Tonight--Wang Chung
8 Word Up--Cameo
9 Walk Like an Egyptian--Bangles
10 Love Will Conquer All--Lionel Richie

Singles entering the chart were Open Your Heart by Madonna (#47); We're Ready by Boston (#59); Ballerina Girl by Lionel Richie (#73); I Need Your Loving by the Human League (#84); I'll Be Alright Without You by Journey (#85); Can't Help Falling in Love by Corey Hart (#86); Jimmy Lee by Aretha Franklin (#88); and Crazay by Jesse Johnson (featuring Sly Stone (#90).

Canada’s Top 10 (RPM)
1 Amanda--Boston
2 Two of Hearts--Stacey Q
3 The Next Time I Fall--Peter Cetera with Amy Grant
4 The Lady in Red--Chris de Burgh
5 True Blue--Madonna
6 Human--Human League
7 To Be a Lover--Billy Idol
8 Spirit in the Sky--Doctor and the Medics
9 Stand by Me--Ben E. King
10 (Forever) Live and Die--Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark

Singles entering the chart were This is the Time by Billy Joel (#88); Graceland by Paul Simon (#91); Stay the Night by Benjamin Orr (#92); Somewhere Out There by Linda Ronstadt and James Ingram (#94); Miami by Bob Seger (#95); Touch Me (I Want Your Body) by Samantha Fox (#96); All I Wanted by Kansas (#97); and Shot in the Dark by Haywire (#98). Stand by Me was a reissue of the 1961 hit and was from the 1986 movie of the same name.

30 years ago
1991

Died on this date
Richard Stone, 78. U.K. economist. Sir Richard was awarded the 1984 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences "for having made fundamental contributions to the development of systems of national accounts and hence greatly improved the basis for empirical economic analysis."

War
In Croatia, forces of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) bombarded Dubrovnik after laying siege to the city for seven months.

10 years ago
2001

Died on this date
Charles McClendon, 78. U.S. football player and coach. Mr. McClendon played at the University of Kentucky (1949-1950) and was an assistant coach for ten years--nine at Louisiana State University (1953-1961) before serving as head coach at LSU (1962-1979), compiling a record of 137-59-7, leading the Tigers into 13 bowl games, winning seven. He was president (1979) and executive director (1982-1994) of the American Football Coaches Association, and was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1986.

Canadiana
The province of Newfoundland was renamed Newfoundland and Labrador by the Constitution Amendment 2001.