March 28, 2013

1,820 years ago
193

Died on this date
Pertinax, 66. Roman Emperor, January 1-March 28, 193. Publius Helvius Pertinax the first of five emperors in 193, was assassinated in his palace by a mob of 300 Praetorian Guards. He was succeeded by Didius Julianus.

400 years ago
1613

Born on this date
Xiaozhuangwen. Empress Consort of China, 1636-1643; Empress Dowager, 1643-1662; Grand Empress Dowager, 1662-1688. Xiaozhuangwen was a concubine of Emperor Hong Taiji of the Qing Dynasty and the mother of the Shunzhi Emperor. She died on January 27, 1688 at the age of 74.

170 years ago
1843

Politics and government
John A. Macdonald was elected as an alderman in Kingston.

120 years ago
1893

Born on this date
Spyros Skouras. Greek-born U.S. motion picture executive. Mr. Skouras emigrated to the United States with his brothers in 1910, and the brothers opened their first movie theatre in 1914. Mr. Skouras was general manager of the Warner Brothers Theater Circuit from 1929-1931, and the brothers took over management of the Fox West Coast Theater chain in 1932. Mr. Skouras initiated ther merger of Fox with Twentieth Century Pictures in 1935, and served as President of 20th Century Fox from 1942-1962, and as chairman of the company for several years thereafter. He died of a heart attack on August 16, 1971 at the age of 78.

Died on this date
Edmund Kirby Smith, 68. U.S. and C.S. military general. General Smith served in the U.S. Army during the Mexican-American War, but resigned to join the Confederate States Army when Texas seceded from the Union in 1861. In the American Civil War, Gen. Smith commanded the Trans-Mississippi Department from 1863 until June 2, 1865, becoming the last Confederate general to surrender to Union forces. After the war, Mr. Smith ran a telegraph company before serving as a professor of mathematics and botany at the University of the South at Sewanee, Tennessee, teaching there until his death from pneumonia.

110 years ago
1903

Born on this date
Rudolf Serkin. Austro-Hungarian musician. Mr. Serkin, a native of Bohemia, was a classical pianist who was a child prodigy and performed internationally before emigrating to the United States shortly after the start of World War II. He was known as one of the 20th century's foremost interpreters of the music of Beethoven, making recordings from the 1940s to the '80s. Mr. Serkin taught at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, and was its director from 1968-1976. He died on May 8, 1991 at the age of 88.

100 years ago
1913

Diplomacy
Guatemala became a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.

80 years ago
1933

Crime
The Imperial Airways biplane City of Liverpool was believed to be the first airplane lost to sabotage when a passenger set a fire on board.

Hockey
NHL
Stanley Cup
Semi-Finals
Toronto 1 @ Boston 0 (OT) (Best-of-five sereis tied 1-1)

Busher Jackson scored the only goal at 15:03 of overtime to give the Maple Leafs the win over the Bruins at Boston Garden. Lorne Chabot earned the shutout to win the goaltending duel over Tiny Thompson.

70 years ago
1943

Died on this date
Sergei Rachmaninoff, 69. Russian composer and pianist. Mr. Rachmaninoff was one of the greatest composers of the late Romantic era and early 20th century. Works of his such as Prelude in C Sharp Minor (1892); Piano Concerto No. 2 (1901); Symphony No. 2 (1908); and Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini (1934) are among the most popular and most-performed in the classical repertoire. He died four days before his 70th birthday.

60 years ago
1953

Hit Parade
#1 single in Australia (Kent Music Report): I Went to Your Wedding--Patti Page; Sammy Kaye and his "Swing and Sway" Orchestra

#1 singles in the U.S.A. (Billboard): The Doggie in the Window--Patti Page (Best seller--2nd week at #1; Jukebox--1st week at #1; Disc Jockey--1st week at #1)

U.S. top 10 (Cash Box)
1 The Doggie in the Window--Patti Page (2nd week at #1)
2 Till I Waltz Again with You--Teresa Brewer
3 Tell Me You're Mine--The Gaylords
4 Wild Horses--Perry Como
5 I Believe--Frankie Laine
6 Don't Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes--Perry Como
7 Your Cheatin' Heart--Joni James
8 Tell Me a Story--Jimmy Boyd and Frankie Laine
9 Gomen-Nasai (Forgive Me)--Columbia Tokyo Orchestra
10 Pretend--Nat "King" Cole

Singles entering the chart were Can't I by Nat "King" Cole with Billy May and his Orchestra (#20)/Blue Gardenia by Nat "King" Cole (#43); Anna by Silvana Mangano (#28); If I were King by the Hilltoppers (#35); and Swedish Rhapsody (Midsummer Vigil) (#40)/The Song from Moulin Rouge (Where is Your Heart) (#41) by Percy Faith and his Orchestra. Blue Gardenia was from the movie The Blue Gardenia (1953); The Song from Moulin Rouge (Where is Your Heart) was from the movie Mr. Thorpe, whose ancestry was a combination of Native American and European, was the greatest athlete of the 20th century, if not ever. He won the gold medal in both pentathlon and decathlon at the 1912 Summer Olympic Games in Stockholm, and was praised by King Gustav V of Sweden as the world's greatest athlete. His medals were taken away because it was discovered that he had briefly played professional baseball several years earlier, but the medals were reinstated and commemorative medals were presented to two of his children 70 years later. Mr. Thorpe played major league baseball with the New York Giants, but his favourite sport was football. He achieved stardom with Carlisle Indian Industrial School, and starred with seven different NFL teams in the 1920s. Mr. Thorpe briefly served as the first president of the American Professional Football Association in 1922, shortly before the league changed its name to the National Football League. He's a member of the College Football Hall of Fame, and was inducted as a charter member of the Professional Football Hall of Fame in 1963. A fictionalized account of his feats, Jim Thorpe--All-American, was a popular movie in 1951, starring Burt Lancaster. Mr. Thorpe himself appeared in several movies, including White Heat (1949), where he was one of the prisoners whispering information about Cody Jarrett's mother in the prison cafeteria.

Hockey
NHL
Stanley Cup
Semi-Finals
Boston 5 @ Detroit 3 (Best-of-seven series tied 1-1)
Chicago 3 @ Montreal 4 (Montreal led best-of-seven series 2-0)

Sugar Jim Henry made 43 saves as the Bruins upset the Red Wings at Olympia Stadium.

Dickie Moore, Bernie Geoffrion, and Dick Gamble scored consecutive goals for the Canadiens in the 2nd period as they overcame a 3-1 deficit to defeat the Black Hawks at the Montreal Forum. Floyd Curry scored the first Montreal goal.

50 years ago
1963

Hit parade
#1 single in the U.K. (Record Retailer): Foot Tapper--The Shadows

Hockey
NHL
Stanley Cup
Semi-Finals
Detroit 2 @ Chicago 5 (Chicago led best-of-seven series 2-0)
Montreal 2 @ Toronto 3 (Toronto led best-of-seven series 2-0)

Bobby Hull of the Black Hawks suffered a broken bone beneath his right eye and his nose was cut for 10 stitches when he was clipped by the stick of Bruce MacGregor of the Red Wings at Chicago Stadium.

Toronto coach Punch Imlach benched Frank Mahovlich in the 2nd period and went with two lines, and the move paid off as the Maple Leafs edged the Canadiens at Maple Leaf Gardens.

40 years ago
1973

War
U.S. Attorney General Elliot Richardson said that President Richad Nixon had clear constitutional authority to bomb in Cambodia to clear up the "lingering corner of the war" against North Vietnam. U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield (Democrat--Montana) took issue with Mr. Richardson's statement, saying that such authority would end with the March 29 pullout of the last U.S. troops from Vietnam. Mr. Richardson had not specified what part of the Constitution gave the President his authority to continue bombing.

Scandal
According to sources in the United States Congress, James McCord, recently convicted for his role in the June 1972 break-in at the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee in the Watergate office complex in Washington, said in secret hearings that former Attorney General John Mitchell had advance knowledge of the burglary attempt.

Disasters
The Norwegian freighter Anita, carrying a crew of 32, was reported missing off the coast of New Jersey, just six days after the Norwegian freighter Norse Variant had sunk 150 miles off Cape May, N.J., with the loss of 29 of 30 crewmen.

30 years ago
1983

Hit parade
#1 single in Australia (Kent Music Report): Up Where We Belong--Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes

Diplomacy
Greek Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou arrived in Ottawa to begin a state visit to Canada.

Politics and government
U.K. Energy Secretary Nigel Dawson named Ian Macgregor, head of British Steel Corporation, as the new chairman of the National Coal Board.

25 years ago
1988

Hit parade
#1 single in Australia (Australian Music Report): I Should Be So Lucky--Kylie Minogue (3rd week at #1)

World events
Panamanian troops and plainclothes police entered a hotel in Panama City and seized suspected opponents of the regime of President Manuel Noriega, as well as some foreign journalists. Most of those arrested were soon released.

The Israeli army said it would seal off the occupied territories for three days to frustrate Palestinian demonstrations planned for Land Day, the anniversary of the deaths of six Arabs killed in 1976 when they had protested the seizure of land by the Israeli government.

Diplomacy
The government of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega began negotiations with the opposition Contras, as the United States began withdrawing troops from neighbouring Honduras.

Defense
The United States Senate Armed Services Committee voted 18-2 to endorse a treaty with the Soviet Union on intermediate-range nuclear forces.

Politics and government
Representative Dick Gephardt of Missouri suspended active campaigning for the 1988 Democratic Party nomination for President of the United States.

20 years ago
1993

Hit parade
#1 single in New Zealand: In the Still of the Nite (I'll Remember)--Boyz II Men

#1 single in Austria (Ö3): All that She Wants--Ace of Base

#1 single in Switzerland: No Limit--2 Unlimited (2nd week at #1)

#1 single in Ireland (IRMA): No Limit--2 Unlimited (5th week at #1)

Terrorism
Five men were in custody and another was sought in connection with the February 26 bomb explosion at the World Trade Center in New York, which had injured hundreds of people. One major suspect, an Egyptian-born taxi driver, was returned to New York after capture in Cairo. A letter to The New York Times ascribed the bombing to deep resentment against U.S. policy in the Middle East.

World events
A food convoy reached the Bosnian town of Srebrenica, relieving the threat of starvation for thousands, virtually all of them Muslims.

10 years ago
2003

Died on this date
Rusty Draper, 80. U.S. singer. Mr. Draper was a country singer who was able to cross over into the pop charts in the 1950s. His biggest hit singles were Gambler's Guitar (1953--#6 Billboard country, #6 pop); The Shifting, Whispering Sands (1955--#3 country, #3 pop); and Freight Train (1957--#3 country, #6 pop).

War
Iraqi Kurds and U.S. special forces wrested a number of villages from the control of the militantly Islamic group Ansar al-Islam, which was reportedly linked to al-Qaeda. In a friendly fire incident, two A-10 Thunderbolt II attack aircraft from the United States Idaho Air National Guard's 190th Fighter Squadron attacked British tanks, killing U.K. soldier Matty Hull. A blast in a Baghdad market killed more than 50 civilians, according to claims by Iraqi officials. Coalition forces stated that they did not target civilians and that they were largely successful in minimizing civilian casualties through precision bombing.