December 7, 2012

Born on this date
Happy Birthday, Angelina Pratt!

225 years ago
1787

Americana
Delaware became the first state to ratify the United States Constitution, as all 30 delegates to the Delaware Constitutional Convention voted in favour of ratification.

150 years ago
1862

War
Union forces under General James Blunt held off Confederate forces under General Thomas Hindman at the Battle of Prairie Grove in northwestern Arkansas in the U.S. Civil War, securing Arkansas for the Union.

80 years ago
1932

On the radio
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, starring Richard Gordon and Leigh Lovell, on NBC
Tonight’s episode: The Sign of the Four, Part 5

50 years ago
1962

Died on this date
Kirsten Flagstad, 67. Norwegian singer. Miss Flagstad was an operatic soprano who was best known for her performances of the works of Richard Wagner. She was regarded as one of the greatest singers of the 20th century, performing from the 1910s through the early '50s. Miss Flagstad began performing at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in 1934, but attracted criticism when she followed her husband back to Norway in 1941, spending the rest of World War II under Nazi occupation. She resumed her career after the war, making her farewell performance at the Metropolitan Opera in 1952. Miss Flagstad died of bone cancer after years of declining health.

40 years ago
1972

Space
Apollo 17, with the crew of Eugene Cernan (Commander), Ron Evans (Command Module Pilot), and Harrison "Jack" Schmitt (Lunar Module Pilot) aboard, lifted off for the moon at 12:33 Eastern Standard Time (it was 10:33 Mountain Standard Time on December 6, where this blogger was watching) from launch pad 39-A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Kennedy, Florida after a 2 hour, 40 minute delay due to a technical error. It was the last manned lunar landing mission and the only U.S. manned mission to lift off at night. Among those in attendance, and interviewed on television by CBS, was Charlie Smith, alleged to be a 130-year-old former slave.





30 years ago
1982

Hit parade
#1 single in Sweden: Puttin' on the Ritz--Taco (7th week at #1)

On the radio
CBS Radio Mystery Theatre, hosted by Tammy Grimes
Tonight's episode: Boatman and the Devil

This was the last new episode to be aired. Repeat broadcasts were aired through December 31, and then the series ended after almost nine years and 1,399 episodes.

Died on this date
Leon Jaworski, 77. U.S. attorney. Mr. Jaworski was best known for succeeding Archibald Cox as Special Prosecutor during the Watergate scandal in October 1973. He resigned on October 25, 1974 after the cover-up trial began.

Will Lee, 74. U.S. actor. Mr. Lee played Mr. Hooper on the television show Sesame Street from the show's beginning in 1969 until his death.

Harry Jerome, 42. Canadian sprinter. Mr. Jerome, a native of Prince Albert who moved to North Vancouver at the age of 12, was the only man to share the world record for the fastest time in the men's 100-metre dash and the 100-yard dash. He held or shared four world records concurrently from 1963-1966. Mr. Jerome died of a brain aneurysm.

Charles Brooks, Jr., 40. U.S. criminal. Mr. Brooks, a convicted murderer, was the first person in the U.S.A. to be executed by lethal injection and the first to be executed in Texas since 1964.

25 years ago
1987

Hit parade
#1 single in Australia (Australian Music Report): Never Gonna Give You Up--Rick Astley (2nd week at #1)

Diplomacy
Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev arrived in Washington to begin a summit with U.S. President Ronald Reagan.

20 years ago
1992

Hit parade
#1 single in Finland (Musiikkituottajat – IFPI Finland): Simo Goes Poing!--KCD (3rd week at #1)

10 years ago
2002

Died on this date
E. Joseph Cossman, 84. U.S. businessman. Mr. Cossman and his brother-in-law Milton Levine were entrepreneurs in toys, co-creating the ant farm, and making a fortune by acquiring marketing rights for toys created by others, learning about these toys by reading trade magazines and attending trade shows. Mr. Cossman's infomercial Cossman Secrets... (1986) was a staple of late-night television in Canada in the late 1980s.



Diplomacy
Iraq formally declared to the United Nations that she had no weapons of mass destruction.