June 17, 2012

130 years ago
1882

Born on this date
Igor Stravinsky. Russian-born musician, composer, and conductor. Mr. Stravinsky was a pianist who became one of the most influential composers of the 20th century, especially with his ballets The Firebird (1910); Petrushka (1911); and The Rite of Spring (1913), the last of which reportedly caused a riot at its premiere performance in Paris. Mr. Stravinsky composed in various styles throughout his life; he achieved a reputation as a musical revolutionary with his early works, but later turned to neoclassicism and serialism. He moved to France in 1920 and became a French citizen in 1934, but moved permanently to the United States in 1939, and became an American citizen in 1945. Mr. Stravinsky died of heart failure on April 6, 1971 at the age of 88.

60 years ago
1952

On television tonight
Suspense, on CBS
Tonight's episode: Phantom of the Riviera, starring John Baragrey and Olive Deering

50 years ago
1962

Golf
Jack Nicklaus defeated Arnold Palmer by 3 strokes in an 18-hole playoff to win the U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club in Oakmont, Pennsylvania.

40 years ago
1972

Hit parade
#1 single in the U.K.: Vincent--Don McLean

Rhodesia's Top 10 (Lyons Maid)
1 Amazing Grace--Royal Scots Dragoon Guards (3rd week at #1)
2 Beautiful Sunday--Daniel Boone
3 Mother and Child Reunion--Paul Simon
4 Beg, Steal or Borrow--The New Seekers
5 Son of My Father--Chicory Tip
6 American Pie--Don McLean
7 A Horse with No Name--America
8 Pasadena--John Edmond
9 Sunshine--Jonathan Edwards
10 Sacramento--Middle of the Road

Singles entering the chart were Amazing Grace by Murray Campbell (#13); and Hold Your Head Up by the Bats (#17).

Australia's Top 10 (Go-Set)
1 Amazing Grace--Royal Scots Dragoon Guards (3rd week at #1)
2 The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face--Roberta Flack
3 Without You--Nilsson
4 Hurting Each Other--Carpenters
5 A Horse with No Name--America
6 Most People I Know Think that I'm Crazy--The Aztecs
7 Vincent--Don McLean
8 Crazy Mama--J.J. Cale
9 Alone Again (Naturally)--Gilbert O'Sullivan
10 Marshall's Portable Music Machine--Robin Jolley

Singles entering the chart were Sylvia's Mother by Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show (#25); Puppy Love by Donny Osmond (#28); Nice to Be with You by Gallery (#32); It's Four in the Morning by Faron Young (#33); and Jump Into the Fire by Nilsson (#37).

#1 single in the U.S.A. (Billboard): The Candy Man--Sammy Davis, Jr. with the Mike Curb Congregation (2nd week at #1)

U.S.A. Top 10 (Cash Box)
1 Sylvia's Mother--Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show
2 Nice to Be with You--Gallery
3 The Candy Man--Sammy Davis, Jr. with the Mike Curb Congregation
4 Song Sung Blue--Neil Diamond
5 Oh Girl--Chi-Lites
6 (Last Night) I Didn't Get to Sleep at All--The 5th Dimension
7 Walkin' in the Rain with the One I Love--Love Unlimited
8 Outa-Space--Billy Preston
9 Troglodyte--The Jimmy Castor Bunch
10 I'll Take You There--Staple Singers

Singles entering the chart were Mary Had a Little Lamb by Wings (#76); Honky Tonk (Part 1) by James Brown (#80); Alone Again (Naturally) by Gilbert O'Sullivan (#84); Brown Eyed Girl by El Chicano (#85); Vaya Con Dios by Dawn (#87); Long Cool Woman (In a Black Dress) by the Hollies (#89); Papa was a Rollin' Stone by the Undisputed Truth (#93); Starman by David Bowie (#96); Nobody But You by Kenny Loggins & Jim Messina (#97); Eddie's Love by Eddie Kendricks (#98); In a Broken Dream by Python Lee Jackson (#99); and Zing Went the Strings of My Heart by the Trammps (#100).

Canada's Top 10 (RPM)
1 Amazing Grace--Royal Scots Dragoon Guards (2nd week at #1)
2 The Candy Man--Sammy Davis, Jr. with the Mike Curb Congregation
3 Sylvia's Mother--Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show
4 Morning has Broken--Cat Stevens
5 Old Man--Neil Young
6 Song Sung Blue--Neil Diamond
7 Nice to Be with You--Gallery
8 Tumbling Dice--Rolling Stones
9 Isn't Life Strange--The Moody Blues
10 (Last Night) I Didn't Get to Sleep at All--The 5th Dimension

Singles entering the chart were Sun Goes By by Doctor Music (#91); Too Young by Donny Osmond (#94); Brandy (You're a Fine Girl) by Looking Glass (#95); The Runway by the Grass Roots (#96); Vanilla Olay by Jackie DeShannon (#97); Mary had a Little Lamb by Wings (#98); Bad Side of the Moon by April Wine (#99); and Who Has the Answers by Andy Kim (#100).

Calgary's Top 10 (Glenn's Music)
1 Nice to Be with You--Gallery
2 Amazing Grace--Royal Scots Dragoon Guards
3 Young New Mexican Puppeteer--Tom Jones
4 Song Sung Blue--Neil Diamond
5 Powder Blue Mercedes Queen--The Raiders
6 Guns, Guns, Guns--The Guess Who
7 Tumbling Dice--Rolling Stones
8 Walkin' in the Rain with the One I Love--Love Unlimited
9 Morning has Broken--Cat Stevens
10 The Family of Man--Three Dog Night
Pick hit of the week: Troglodyte--The Jimmy Castor Bunch

Crime
Five men, including former U.S. Central Intelligence Agency agent James McCord, were arrested for breaking into the offices of the Democratic National Committee in the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C. at 2 A.M. The break-in was discovered by guard Frank Willis when he removed a piece of tape from a garage door, went across the street, and when returned, was surprised to see another piece of tape on the door. Mr. McCord was fired as security officer for the Republican National Committee and the Committee to Re-Elect the President (CREEP).

Politics and government
Eisaku Sato, whose term as Prime Minister of Japan was to expire in October, announced his resignation as head of government and as leader of the Liberal Democratic party. He was succeeded as Prime Minister by Kakuei Tanaka, minister of international trade and industry.

Boxing
Carlos Monzon (76-3-9) retained his world middleweight title with a technical knockout of Jean-Claude Bouttier (56-4-1) in the 13th round at Colombes Stadium in Paris.

30 years ago
1982

Hit parade
Edmonton’s Top 10 (CFRN)
1 Rosanna—Toto (2nd week at #1)
2 When He Shines—Sheena Easton
3 Take Me Down--Alabama
4 Six Months in a Leaky Boat—Split Enz
5 I Don’t Know Where to Start—Eddie Rabbitt
6 Who Can it Be Now?—Men at Work
7 Love’s Been a Little Bit Hard on Me—Juice Newton
8 My Girl—Donnie Iris
9 It’s Gonna Take a Miracle—Deniece Williams
10 The Other Woman—Ray Parker, Jr.

Died on this date
Roberto Calvi, 62. Italian banker. Mr. Calvi joined Banco Ambrosiano, Sicily's second-largest private bank, in 1947, rising to the position of chairman in 1975. He was known as "God's banker" because of his close association with the Vatican. He was convicted in 1981 of illegally exporting several billion lire, and was given a four-year suspended sentence. Mr. Calvi warned Pope John Paul II of disastrous consequences if Banco Ambrosiano were to collapse, and fled to England on June 10, 1982, using a false passport. He was a member of the illegal Italian Masonic lodge Propaganda Due (P2), who referred to themselves as frati neri ("black friars"). Mr. Calvi was found hanging from scaffolding under Blackfriars Bridge in London the day after his death; conspiracy theories abound.

World events
Leopoldo Galtieri resigned as Argentina’s President, commander-in-chief of the army, and member of the ruling junta.

Football
CFL
Pre-season
Toronto (2-0) 26 @ Ottawa (0-2) 10

25 years ago
1987

Hit parade
#1 single in Sweden (Topplistan): I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)--Whitney Houston (3rd week at #1)

Died on this date
Dick Howser, 51. U.S. baseball player, coach, and manager. Mr. Howser was a shortstop with the Kansas City Athletics (1961-1963); Cleveland Indians (1963-1966); and New York Yankees (1967-1968), batting .248 in 789 games, with 16 home runs and 165 runs batted in. He was the Yankees' third base coach from 1969-1978, managing the team for one game in 1978. In 1980 he managed the Yankees for the full season, guiding the club to an American League East Division pennant with a record of 103 wins and 59 losses. However, the Yankees were defeated in 3 straight game by the Kansas City Royals in the AL Championship Series, and when he refused to follow owner George Steinbrenner's order to fire third base coach Mike Ferraro after a botched play at home plate, Mr. Howser departed. He was hired by the Royals as their manager during the 1981 season, and led them to the second-half division title in a split-season schedule. The Royals won the East Division pennant in 1984, and captured their only World Series in 1985, coming back from a 3-1 deficit in games to defeat the Toronto Blue Jays in the ALCS, and winning the last 2 games to defeat the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series. Mr. Howser was diagnosed with a brain tumor while he was managing the AL All-Stars in 1986, and he resigned as manager after the game. An attempt at a comeback in 1987 ended early in spring training. In 8 seasons as a major league manager, Mr. Howser compiled a record of 507-425.

Terrorism
American Broadcasting Company correspondent Charles Glass, who was on leave of absence to write a book about the Middle East, was kidnapped in Beirut along with the son of the Lebanese defense minister and his driver. The Organization for the Defense of Free People, a group previously unknown, claimed responsibility for the kidnappings.

20 years ago
1992

Hit parade
#1 single in Sweden (Topplistan): It's My Life--Dr. Alban (4th week at #1)

Personal
This blogger continued his Quebec vacation, arriving in Sherbrooke.

Abominations
Hundreds of armed Negroes in South Africa attacked residents in the Boipatong settlement south of Johannesburg, killing 42 men, women, and children. African National Congress leaders charged the administration of President F.W. de Klerk with participation in the attack, a charge which Mr. de Klerk vigorously denied.

Diplomacy
U.S. President George Bush and Russian President Boris Yeltsin concluded their summit in Washington by signing bilateral agreements, including one to turn their agreement to reduce their nations’ numbers of strategic weapons into a formal treaty. Mr. Yeltsin addressed the United States Congress in Washington, D.C., saying that if even one American serviceman were being held in Russia, he would get the soldier back to his family. Five days earlier, a U.S. Senate committee had received a letter from Mr. Yeltsin disclosing that the U.S.S.R. had held and later released 716 American servicemen during World War II. During his flight to the United States on June 15, Mr. Yeltsin had said that some U.S. prisoners of the North Vietnamese had been sent to Soviet labour camps during the Vietnam War. On June 16, U.S. President George Bush announced that Malcolm Toon, a former U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union, would go to Russia to study the Soviet archives.

Terrorism
Shiite guerrillas in Lebanon freed Heinrich Struebig and Thomas Kemptner, German relief workers who had been kidnapped in 1989, and were the last Western hostages known to be in custody in Lebanon.

10 years ago
2002

Died on this date
Fritz Walter, 81. German soccer player. Mr. Walter led West Germany to its first World Cup championship in 1954. He played at the senior level from 1937-1959, and was voted Golden Player of the past 50 years (1954-2003) by the German Football Association in 2003.

Willie Davenport, 59. U.S. track and field athlete. Mr. Davenport won the gold medal in the 110-metre hurdles event in the 1968 Olympic games in Mexico City and a bronze medal in the 1976 Olympic games in Montreal.

Science
Australian scientists announced that they had "teleported" a laser beam, breaking it up and reconstructing it in another location.

Labour
Thousands of construction workers in Germany walked off the job in a demand for higher wages in the first major strike in Germany’s construction sector in more than 50 years.