March 15, 2013

Born on this date
Happy Birthday, Walker Morrow!

1,520 years ago
493

Died on this date
Odoacer, 60 (?). King of Italy, 476-493. Flavius Odoacer was a Germanic soldier who became the first King of Italy at the end of the Western Roman Empire. He fled to Ravenna in 490 as a result of military pressure being exerted on the eastern peninsula by the Ostrogoth Theoderic. Theoderic invited King Odoacer to a banquet of reconciliation in Ravenna and then killed him.

1,080 years ago
933

War
After a 10-year truce, King Henry I of Germany defeated a Hungarian army in the Battle of Riade.

520 years ago
1493

Exploration
Christopher Columbus arrived back in Spain after his first trip to the Americas.

230 years ago
1783

Politics and government
U.S. military commander George Washington delivered an emotional address in Newburgh, New York, asking his officers not to support the Newburgh Conspiracy, and to accept the supremacy of Congress. The conspiracy, an uprising that may have blossomed into a coup d'etat, began with an anonymous letter complaining about arrears in payments and pensions for members of the Continental Army.

175 years ago
1838

Born on this date
Karl Davydov. Russian musician and composer. Mr. Davydov was nicknamed the "czar of cellists" by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, and composed several dozen works, mainly for cello. He died on February 26, 1889, 17 days before his 51st birthday.

125 years ago
1888

War
The Anglo-Tibetan War began when Tibet refused to withdraw its troops from Sikkim according to the ultimatum imposed by Great Britain.

100 years ago
1913

Born on this date
Macdonald Carey. U.S. actor. Mr. Carey appeared in movies such as Wake Island (1942); Shadow of a Doubt (1943); The Great Gatsby (1949); and Blue Denim (1959), but was best known for playing Dr. Tom Horton in the NBC television soap opera Days of Our Lives from 1965-1993, winning Daytime Emmy Awards in 1974 and 1975. He died on March 21, 1994 at the age of 81.

80 years ago
1933

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

Politics and government
Austrian Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss prevented the National Council from convening, beginning a fascist dicatorship.

75 years ago
1938

Died on this date
Nikolai Bukharin, 49. U.S.S.R. revolutionary and politician. Mr. Bukharin was a leading figure in the Bolshevik revolution and the Soviet government who eventually opposed dictator Josef Stalin's economic policies and was executed after one of the "Show Trials" of Mr. Stalin's opponents within the Communist Party.

Genrikh Yagoda, 46. U.S.S.R. bureaucrat. Mr. Yagoda, born Yenokh Gershevich Iyeguda, was a Bolshevik official who moved up through the ranks of the Soviet secret police organization Cheka, and was director of the NKVD (1934-1936). He supervised arrests, show trials, and executions of the Old Bolsheviks Lev Kamenev and Grigory Zinoviev, and also supervised construction of the White Sea–Baltic Canal with Naftaly Frenkel, using slave labor from the GULAG system, during which 12,000–25,000 laborers died. Soviet dictator Josef Stalin became disenchanted with Mr. Yagoda, and in September 1936 demoted him to People's Commissar for Posts and Telegraphs. In April 1937, Mr. Yagoda was removed from that post, and ultimately fell victim to the very system he used against others. He was a defendant in the Trial of the Twenty-One, the last of the major Soviet show trials of the 1930s. Mr. Yagoda confessed under torture, and after his conviction, was summarily shot. He was the only defendant not to be posthumously rehabilitated.

70 years ago
1943

War
German forces recaptured the Ukrainian city of Kharkov after four days of house-to-house fighting in the Third Battle of Kharkov.

50 years ago
1963

Hit parade
#1 single in Ireland (IRMA): From a Jack to a King--Ned Miller (2nd week at #1)

Edmonton's top 10 (CJCA)
1 One Broken Heart for Sale--Elvis Presley
2 Rhythm of the Rain--The Cascades
3 He's So Fine--The Chiffons
4 Hey Paula--Paul and Paula
5 Can't Get Used to Losing You--Andy Williams
6 Still--Bill Anderson
7 Wild Weekend--The Rebels
8 Sympathy--Wanda Jackson
9 Sandy--Dion
10 Let's Turkey Trot--Little Eva

On television tonight
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, on CBS
Tonight's episode: The Star Juror, starring Dean Jagger and Betty Field

Boxing
Sonny Banks (13-4) scored a technical knockout over Leroy Roker (4-3) 40 seconds into the 6th round of a heavyweight bout at the Graystone Ballroom in Detroit.

40 years ago
1973

Hit parade
#1 single in Ireland (IRMA): Cum on Feel the Noize--Slade

Diplomacy
The People's Republic of China released U.S. Air Force Major Philip E. Smith and Lieutenant Commander Robert J. Flynn, the last two Americans held in China. They had been shot down in the late 1960s when their missions over North Vietnam had strayed into Chinese territory.

30 years ago
1983

Hit parade
#1 single in Sweden (Topplistan): Words--F.R. David (2nd week at #1)

Died on this date
Rebecca West, 90. U.K. writer. Dame Rebecca, a liberal who was known for her opposition to both Nazism and Communism, wrote both fiction and non-fiction. Her books included The Return of the Soldier (1918); Black Lamb and Grey Falcon (1941); The Meaning of Treason (1949); A Train of Powder (1955); and The New Meaning of Treason (1964).

25 years ago
1988

War
Iran claimed to have taken the Iraqi town of Halabja, a stronghold of Kurdish separatists.

World events
Soviet deputy prosecutor general Alexander Katusev was quoted in an Azerbaijani newspaper as saying that the mistreatment of Armenians in the Azerbaijani city of Sumgait constituted a pogrom. As many as 300 had been killed during disturbances on February 28.

Panamanian troops stormed the country's largest hospital, firing tear gas and bird shot, after doctors and nurses demonstrated against the regime of Gen. Manuel Noriega.

Diplomacy
Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir met with U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz in Washington.

Politics and government
United States Vice-President George Bush defeated U.S. Senator Bob Dole 55%-36% in the Illinois Republican primary for his party's 1988 presidential nomination. In the Democratic primary, Illinois Senator Paul Simon won his home state with 43% of the vote; Jesse Jackson took 31%, and Michael Dukakis 17%.

Environment
The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration announced that the ozone layer in the northern hemisphere had been declining significantly over the previous two decades.

10 years ago
2003

Died on this date
Thora Hird, 91.. U.K. actress. Dame Thora appeared in more than 100 movies and television programs in a career spanning more than 70 years, and won three BAFTA TV Awards.

World events
Central African Republican President Ange-Felix Patasse was overthrown in a coup by François Bozizé.

Health
The World Health Organization issued an alert on a "worldwide health threat," what it called severe acute repiratory syndrome (SARS), a new illness causing pneumonia-like stmptoms, which had spread from Asia to Europe and North America.

Politics and government
Xu Jintao was chosen to replace Jiang Zemin as President of China.

With his Parti Quebecois doing well in public opinion polls, Quebec Premier Bernard Landry called a provincial election for April 14.