January 13, 2012

80 years ago
1932

On the radio
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, starring Richard Gordon and Leigh Lovell, on NBC
Tonight's episode: The Gloria Scott

60 years ago
1952

On television tonight
Out There, on CBS
Tonight's episode: The Castaway, starring Casey Allen, Herbert Berghof, Grant Gordon, and Robert F. Simon

This was the 12th and last episode of the series.

50 years ago
1962

Hit parade
#1 single in Italy: Nata per me--Adriano Celentano (8th week at #1)

#1 single in the U.K. (New Musical Express): The Young Ones--Cliff Richard

#1 single in the U.S.A. (Billboard): The Twist--Chubby Checker (2nd week at #1)

The Twist had previously occupied the #1 spot on September 19, 1960.

U.S.A. Top 10 (Cash Box)
1 The Twist--Chubby Checker (6th week at #1)
2 The Lion Sleeps Tonight--The Tokens
3 Peppermint Twist - Part I--Joey Dee & the Starliters
4 Can't Help Falling in Love--Elvis Presley
5 I Know (You Don't Love Me No More)--Barbara George
6 Run to Him--Bobby Vee
7 Walk on By--Leroy Van Dyke
8 When the Boy in Your Arms (Is the Boy in Your Heart)--Connie Francis
9 Happy Birthday, Sweet Sixteen--Neil Sedaka
10 Please Mr. Postman--The Marvelettes

Singles entering the chart were Break it to Me Gently (#65)/So Deep (#68) by Brenda Lee; The Greatest Hurt (#76)/There'll Be No Next Time (#87) by Jackie Wilson; Shadrack by Brook Benton (#78); Imagination by the Quotations (#85); Surfer's Stomp by the Marketts (#88); Where Have All the Flowers Gone by the Kingston Trio (#95); The Door is Open by Tommy Hunt (#99); and What's So Good About Good-By by the Miracles (#100).

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

Died on this date
Ernie Kovacs, 42. U.S. comedian, actor, and songwriter. Generally regarded as the most innovative comedian of television's "Golden Age" in the 1950s, Mr. Kovacs was killed in an accident while driving his new 1962 Chevrolet Corvair home from a party.

40 years ago
1972

World events
An army coup led by Lieutenant Colonel I. K. Acheampong deposed Ghanaian Prime Minister Kofi Busia while the prime minister was in London for medical treatment.

War
U.S. President Richard Nixon announced that 70,000 more combat troops would be withdrawn from Vietnam by May 1, reducing the total remaining in Vietnam to 69,000--the lowest figure since 1965. Mr. Nixon expressed confidence that "the Vietnamization program has moved forward with sufficient vigor and progress so that the South Vietnamese are in a position where they can provide for the security responsibilities."

One day after guerrillas had shelled a northern Israeli town, Israeli troops raided Lebanon and crossed to Kafra, 6 miles north of the border between Israel and Lebanon.

Defense
U.S. government officials revealed that the State Department had signed an agreement in principle with Israel in November 1971 to help Israel in making "certain U.S.-designed defense equipment" herself, in an effort to make Israel more self-sufficient in producing her own weapons and less dependent on the United States. No "specific items" had been covered by the pact, but they would be covered on a case-by-case basis in the future.

Terrorism
The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation announced that a 33-year-old AWOL Army private with a degree in psychology from Stanford University was being sought in a plot that involved bombs being placed in banks in New York, Chicago and San Francisco. The bombs had been discovered on January 7 after their locations had been disclosed in anonymous letters calling for the release of all "political prisoners."

30 years ago
1982

Weather
After more than two weeks of bitterly cold temperatures in Edmonton, it suddenly warmed up to about 40 F--just for that day.

Terrorism
Gunmen entered the village of Libertad las Cruces, 55 miles south of Guatemala City, and killed 12 members of a single family, aged 6 to 65. Meanwhile, Gutemalan government troops killed 23 guerrillas in fighting near San Juan de Comala, 50 miles west of the capital.

Disasters
78 of 83 people aboard were killed when Air Florida Flight 90, a twin-Engine Boeing 737 jetliner which had taken off in a snowstorm from National Airport in Washington, D.C. during the afternoon traffic rush hour, crashed into the crowded 14th Street Bridge, hit several cars, broke up, and plunged into the Potomac River. Four of the 78 fatalities were people killed in their cars on the bridge. Witnesses reported a considerable buildup of snow and ice on the plane's fuselage and wings, and investigation revealed that a de-icing device in the engine system had been turned off before the crash.



Medicine
It was announced that a team of doctors at the University of Washington led by Alexander Fefer had developed a bone-marrow treatment for chronic granulocytic leukemia, a disease that usually struck people in their 30s and 40s and usually proved fatal within 2-4 years. Bone marrow transplants tried on 12 patients--all identical twins--had resulted in 8 of the 12 being free of the disease within five years, and only one had died.

Baseball
Hank Aaron, who hit a record 755 home runs in a major league career spanning 23 seasons with the Milwaukee and Atlanta Braves (1954-1974) and Milwaukee Brewers (1975-1976) was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility, but somehow was left off the ballots of 9 of the 415 writers casting votes.

25 years ago
1987

Crime
Hector Escudero Aponte, a maintenance worker at the Dupont Plaza Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico, was arraigned on 96 counts of murder after admitting to the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation that he had started a fire, intended to be a small fire, in the hotel on New Year's Eve 1986, that had killed 96 people. Another man was charged in the case the following day, and a third man on January 29.

Disasters
All 54 people aboard an Ethiopian air force plane were killed when it killed shortly after takeoff from Asmara, Eritrea.

10 years ago
2002

Theatre
The Fantasticks, which had been running off-Broadway at the Sullivan Street Playhouse in New York City's Greenwich Village since 1960, closed after 17,162 performances.