March 22, 2013

1,775 years ago
238

World events
Gordian I and his son Gordian II were proclaimed Roman Emperors.

375 years ago
1638

Religion
Anne Hutchinson was expelled from Massachusetts Bay Colony and excommunicated from the Boston church for religious dissent, even after she had read a recantation of her alleged heresies during her church trial. With her children and some followers, Mrs. Hutchinson walked for six days until reaching Providence, Rhode Island.

290 years ago
1723

Business
The Compagnie des Indes (French West India Company) was awarded a tobacco monopoly in New France.

140 years ago
1873

Law
A law was approved by the Spanish National Assembly in Puerto Rico to abolish slavery.

100 years ago
1913

Born on this date
James Westerfield. U.S. actor and director. Mr. Westerfield was a character actor who played small roles on stage, screen, and television. He directed more than 50 musicals from a tent he owned in Danbury, Connecticut, and directed three seasons of Theatre Under the Stars in Vancouver, British Columbia. Mr. Westerfield died of a heart attack on September 20, 1971 at the age of 58.

Tom McCall. U.S. journalist and politician. Mr. McCall was a newspaper and television journalist in Portland, Oregon before entering politics. A Republican, he served as Governor of Oregon from 1967-1975. Mr. McCall died on January 8, 1983 at the age of 69.

Died on this date
Sung Chiao-jen, 30. Chinese politician. Sung,leader of the Kuomintang (Chinese Nationalist Party), died two days after being shot by lone gunman Ying Kuicheng at a train station in Shanghai while travelling with friends to the Chinese parliament in Peking. Kuomintang had achieved great success in recent parliamentary elections, and Sung would have been in a prominent position in the government. The trail of evidence led to the assassination being a conspiracy led by the secretary of the cabinet and provisional premier of the government, Zhao Bingjun. Although government leader Yuan Shikai ws believed to be the mastermind, he was never charged. Other accused conspirators disappeared or were assassinated.

80 years ago
1933

On the radio
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, starring Richard Gordon and Leigh Lovell, on NBC
Tonight's episode: Mr. Pattle's Secret Profession

75 years ago
1938

Hockey
NHL
Stanley Cup
Quarter-finals
New York Americans 2 New York Rangers 1 (2OT) (Americans led best-of-three series 1-0)

Johnny Sorrell scored the winning goal at 1:25 of the 2nd overtime period at Madison Square Garden.

70 years ago
1943

Abominations
The entire population of Khatyn, Belarus was burnt alive by German occupation forces.

50 years ago
1963

Hit parade
#1 single in Ireland (IRMA): From a Jack to a King--Ned Miller (3rd week at #1)

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

On television tonight
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, on CBS
Tonight's episode: The Long Silence, starring Michael Rennie and Phyllis Thaxter

Music
The Beatles' first album, Please Please Me, was released in the United Kingdom on the Parlophone label.



Scandal
U.K. Secretary of State for War John Profumo denied having an affair with model Christine Keeler, who had been having an affair with Evgeny Ivanov, a naval attaché at the Soviet embassy in London at the time she and Mr. Profumo had first met in 1961.

40 years ago
1973

Hit parade
#1 single in Ireland (IRMA): Cum on Feel the Noize--Slade (2nd week at #1)

Disasters
The Norwegian freighter Norse Variant, carrying a crew of 30, sank 150 miles off Cape May, New Jersey, with only one seaman surviving.

30 years ago
1983

Hit parade
#1 single in Sweden (Topplistan): Young Guns (Go for It)--Wham!

Died on this date
Blanton Collier, 76. U.S. football coach. Mr. Collier was head coach of the Cleveland Browns of the National Football League from 1963-1970, and led the Browns to the NFL championship in 1964. Mr. Collier began his professional coaching career as an assistant under Paul Brown when the Browns began play in the All-America Football Conference in 1946. The Browns won the AAFC championship in all four years of the league’s existence, then moved into the NFL, where they won the title in 1950, and made it to the championship game in each of the next three seasons. Mr. Collier left the Browns after the 1953 season to become head coach at the University of Kentucky; in eight seasons (1954-1961) he produced a record of 41 wins, 36 losses, and 3 ties, but was fired in January 1962. No Kentucky head coach since Mr. Collier has left the school with a winning record. Paul Brown welcomed Mr. Collier back as an assistant with the Browns in 1962; when Mr. Brown was fired after posting a 7-6-1 record that season, Mr. Collier was chosen as his replacement by owner Art Modell, but wouldn’t accept the job until he had first discussed it with Mr. Brown. Mr. Collier allowed his players, such as quarterback Frank Ryan, more input into play selection, and the results paid off with a string of winning records. Running back Jim Brown, who had failed to win the NFL rushing title in 1962 for the first time in his 6-year career, came back in 1963 with a then-record 1,863 yards. The Browns improved to 10-4 that year, and posted a 10-3-1 record in 1964, capping the season with a 27-0 win at home over the heavily-favoured Baltimore Colts in the championship game. From 1965-1969 the Browns never won fewer than 9 games in each season (they played 14-game seasons then), but always fell just short of the title. They played in the NFL championship games in 1965, 1968, and 1969. In 1970 the Browns dropped to 7-7, and missed the playoffs; Mr. Collier had been growing increasingly deaf, and he decided after that season that the hearing loss was making it too difficult for him to continue coaching. Mr. Collier managed one achievement in 1970 that served as a footnote in the history books: He became the winning coach in the first game ever played on Monday Night Football when the Browns defeated the New York Jets in their season opener on September 21. Mr. Collier retired with a professional head coaching record of 76-34-2. He continued with the Browns organization as a college scout. According to one of his players, defensive end Paul Wiggin, "We had the greatest teacher in football in Blanton Collier. He was a gentleman, he was a great coach...There were no flaws. He could have run for president. If someone put together a committee to find holes in his life, they wouldn’t have found any. He was a good human being." In the words of Browns’ owner Art Modell, "God never created a finer human being than Blanton Collier."

Politics and government
French Premier Pierre Mauroy, a Socialist, offered to resign in the wake of gains by right-of-centre parties in recent municipal elections, but President Francois Mitterand reappointed him. Mr. Mauroy was able to assemble a centrist government with 12 Socialist cabinet ministers and 2 Communists.

Economics and finance
The West German centre-right coalition government of Chancellor Helmut Kohl announced a program that included subsidies for investment to reduce unemployment and a reduction in social spending.

25 years ago
1988

On television tonight
The Wonder Years, on ABC
Tonight's episode: Swingers

20 years ago
1993

Died on this date
Steve Olin, 27. U.S. baseball pitcher. Mr. Olin, a member of the Cleveland Indians since 1989, was in a boat with fellow pitchers Tim Crews and Bob Ojeda on Little Lake Nellie in Clermont, Florida during spring training, when Mr. Crews, whose blood alcohol level was .14, drove the boat into an unlighted dock. Mr. Crews died a few hours later, early the next day, and Mr. Ojeda was seriously injured. In 4 seasons with the Indians, Mr. Olin appeared in 195 games, all but 1 in relief. He won 16 games and lost 19, with 48 saves and a 3.10 earned run average. His last season was his best, as he recorded 8 wins and 5 losses with 29 saves in 72 games.

Technology
The Intel Corporation shipped the first Pentium computer chips (80586), featuring a 60 MHz clock speed, 100+ million instructions per second (MIPS), and a 64 bit data path.

10 years ago
2003

Died on this date
Terry Lloyd, 50. U.K. journalist. Mr. Lloyd was covering the Iraq War for the British network Independent Television News as an independent (not "embedded") reporter when he, two cameramen, and his Lebanese interpreter, Hussein Osman, were caught in a crossfire between U.S. and Iraqi forces during fighting near the Shatt Al Basra Bridge in Basra. Messrs. Lloyd and Osman were killed, and their bodies were later recovered. Frédéric Nérac, the French cameraman, is still officially listed as missing, presumed dead. Belgian cameraman Daniel Demoustier survived. A British coroner's inquest in 2006 returned a verdict of unlawful killing by U.S. forces. The U.K. Crown Prosecution Service declined to pursue charges against the U.S. Marines involved in the attack on the basis of "insufficient evidence," which most likely means they caved in to U.S. pressure.

War
Six British soldiers and a U.S. serviceman died when two helicopters collided in Iraq.