May 11, 2013

200 years ago
1813

Exploration
IIn Australia, William Lawson, Gregory Blaxland and William Wentworth led an expedition westwards from Sydney, opening up inland Australia for continued expansion throughout the 19th century.

180 years ago
1833

Disasters
The immigrant ship Lady of the Lake, bound from Belfast to Quebec, struck an iceberg about 500 miles from Newfoundland and sank in the North Atlantic Ocean, killing 215.

125 years ago
1888

Born on this date
Irving Berlin. U.S. songwriter. Born Israel Beilin near Mogilev in what is now Belarus, Mr. Berlin came to the United States with his family in the early 1890s, settling in New York City. He became one of the most renowned songwriters in American history, composing about 1,500 songs, and the scores for 19 Broadway shows and 18 movies. His first major hit song was Alexander's Ragtime Band (1911), which created an international dance craze. Other notable hit songs included What'll I Do (1924); Blue Skies (1926); Marie (1929); Puttin' on the Ritz (1930); I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm (1937); God Bless America (1938); and White Christmas (1942). He died on September 22, 1989 at the age of 101.

75 years ago
1938

Died on this date
George S. Lyon, 79. Canadian golfer. Mr. Lyon, a native of Richmond, Ontario, won the gold medal in golf at the 1904 Summer Olympic games in St. Louis, won the Canadian amateur championship eight times between 1898 and 1914, and finished in second place in the U.S. Amateur championship in 1906. He was inducted into the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame in 1971.

Buzz Murphy, 43. U.S. baseball player. Mr. Murphy, an outfielder, played 9 games with the Boston Red Sox in 1918, and 79 games with the Washington Nationals in 1919, batting .275 with one home run in 88 major league games.

Danny Boone, 43. U.S. baseball pitcher. Mr. Boone played for the Philadelphia Athletics, Detroit Tigers, and Cleveland Indians from 1919-1922, compiling a record of 8 wins and 13 losses.

70 years ago
1943

Born on this date
Happy Birthday, Nancy Greene Raine! Miss Greene, the best female skier in Canadian history, won the gold medal in giant slalom and the silver in slalom at the 1968 Winter Olympic games in Grenoble, France. During the 1968 season, she won 9 straight races to win the World Cup. Miss Greene, who married ski coach Al Raine, was voted Canada's female athlete of the 20th century, and is a member of Canada's Sports Hall of Fame. Since 2009 she's been representing British Columbia in the Senate as a member of the Conservative Party.

War
U.K. Prime Minister Winston Churchill and his aides arrived in Washington to confer with U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt on the progress of World War II. American troops invaded Attu Island in the Aleutian Islands in an attempt to expel occupying Japanese forces. Allied planes from Tunisia, Libya, and Malta heavily bombed Marsala and Catania, Sicily, and Pantellaria Island. The United Kingdom sent troops from Barbados to Dominica Island in the West Indies "in connection with the Martinique situtation."

Labour
The U.S. House of Representatives Military Affairs Committee voted to revise the Connally bill forbidding war plant strikes until workers were polled, banning jurisdictional strikes, and making it illegal to prevent workers from accepting jobs in strike-bound plants.

60 years ago
1953

Disasters
An F5 tornado hit downtown Waco, Texas, killing 114 people.

50 years ago
1963

Hit parade
#1 single in Australia (Kent Music Report): Pipeline--Chantays
(3rd week at #1)

#1 single in France: L'école est Finie--Sheila (4th week at #1)

#1 single in Italy (FIMI): Come te non c'è nessuno--Rita Pavone (8th week
at #1)

#1 single in West Germany (Media Control): Wini-Wini--Die Tahiti-Tamourés
(2nd week at #1)

#1 single in the U.K. (New Musical Express): From Me to You--The
Beatles (3rd week at #1)

#1 single in the U.S.A. (Billboard): I Will Follow Him--Little
Peggy March (3rd week at #1)

U.S. Top 10 (Cash Box)
1 I Will Follow Him--Little Peggy March (2nd week at #1)
2 Puff the Magic Dragon--Peter, Paul and Mary
3 Can't Get Used to Losing You--Andy Williams
4 If You Wanna Be Happy--Jimmy Soul
5 Pipeline--Chantays
6 Surfin' U.S.A.--Beach Boys
7 He's So Fine--The Chiffons
8 Foolish Little Girl--The Shirelles
9 Reverend Mr. Black--The Kingston Trio
10 Two Faces Have I--Lou Christie

Singles entering the chart were Those Lazy-Hazy-Crazy Days of Summer by Nat King Cole (#63); The Good Life (#70)/Spring in Manhattan (#94) by Tony Bennett; 18 Yellow Roses by Bobby Darin (#87); Wildwood Days by Bobby Rydell (#88); Needles and Pins by Jackie DeShannon (#90); Gravy Waltz by Steve Allen (#92); Teenage Heaven by Johnny Cymbal (#93); Little Latin Lupe Lu by the Righteous Brothers (#99); Your Old Stand By by Mary Wells (#100); and My Summer Love by Ruby and the Romantics (also #100).

Died on this date
Herbert Spencer Gasser, 74. U.S. physiologist. Dr. Gasser shared the 1944 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Joseph Erlanger "for their discoveries relating to the highly differentiated functions of single nerve fibres." Dr. Gasser was Director of the Rockefeller Institute from 1935-1953.

Married on this date
Future Canadian Prime Minister John Turner married Geills McCrae Kilgour in Montreal.

World events
British businessman Greville Wynne was convicted by a Moscow tribunal of spying for the West and sentenced to three years in prison and five more at a labour camp, while his co-defendant, Soviet scientific official Oleg Penkovsky, was sentenced to death.

Hockey
Memorial Cup
Finals
Niagara Falls 3 @ Edmonton 4 (Edmonton won best-of-seven series 4-2)

Gregg Pilling's goal held up as the winner as the Oil Kings held on to defeat the Flyers before 6,800 fans at the Edmonton Gardens to win the Memorial Cup for the first time. The Oil Kings built a 4-1 lead, but Terry Crisp scored 2 goals for Niagara Falls, the second with a minute remaining in regulation time, to draw the Flyers to within a goal.

Baseball
Sandy Koufax pitched his second career major league no-hitter as the Los Angeles Dodgers blanked the San Francisco Giants 8-0 at Dodger Stadium.

40 years ago
1973

Hit parade
#1 single in New Zealand: Top of the World--Carpenters

#1 single in West Germany (Media Control): Get Down--Gilbert O'Sullivan

Died on this date
Lex Barker, 54. U.S. actor. Mr. Barker was best known for playing Tarzan of the Apes in five movies from 1949-1953. He died of a heart attack three days after his 54th birthday.

Diplomacy
The West German Bundestag voted 268-217 to ratify a treaty establishing formal relations with East Germany. The Bundestag also voted 365-121 in favour of both Germanies being members of the United Nations. Although the treaty did not accord full recognition to East Germany, it arranged for the exchange of "permanent representatives" and provided for the opening of new border crossing points.

Scandal
Presiding Judge William Byrne dismissed all U.S. government charges of espionage, theft, and conspiracy against defendants Daniel Ellsberg and Anthony Russo, stating, "The conduct of the government has placed the case in such a posture that it precludes the fair, dispassionate resolution of these issues by a jury." Judge Byrne's ruling--"with prejudice"--on the 89th day of the trial precluded a retrial, but did not vindicate the defendants nor resolve the major consitutional issues in the case. Mr. Ellsberg, a former Defense Department employee, had leaked the "Pentagon Papers," regarding U.S. involvement in Vietnam, to Mr. Russo, a reporter with The New York Times, in 1971. In the last two weeks of the trial it had been revealed that E. Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy had broken into the office of Mr. Ellsberg's psychiatrist with the intention of stealing Mr. Ellsberg's medical records; that Judge Byrne had recently met with presidential adviser John Ehrlichman and had been offered the position of director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation but had turned it down because of the ongoing trial; that Mr. Hunt had testified that the break-in at the office of Mr. Ellsberg's psychiatrist had been conceived and authorized within the White House; and that Mr. Ellsberg's telephone conversations from late 1969 through early 1970 had been wiretapped, and that the records and transcripts based on the wiretaps had disappeared between July and October 1971. Judge Byrne stated that the burden was now on the government to prove that the taped conversations were not used to "taint" the case.

30 years ago
1983

Protest
The copperworkers’ union and five other unions called for a day of protest against the government of Chile, the first such action since the junta headed by Gen. Augusto Pinochet seized power in 1973. The copperworkers’ union stopped short of calling for a general strike when the government showed military force, but the demonstrations, directed primarily at the high cost of living, appeared to be widespread. Tear gas and water cannons were used to disperse crowds in Santiago; police shot and killed 2, and arrested 350.

Defense
U.S. President Ronald Reagan, in a letter to the House of Representatives, said that he would seek new approaches to arms talks with the Soviet Union and that he would bring the United States negotiating position in line with the recommendations of the Scowcroft commission. In immediate response, the House committee voted to release funds for research and development of the MX missile.

25 years ago
1988

Hit parade
#1 single in Sweden (Topplistan): Maybe We're About to Fall in Love--Tommy Nilsson (3rd week at #1)

Died on this date
Kim Philby, 76. U.K. traitor. Mr. Philby, a British spy, was one of the Cambridge Five, Communists who provided information to the Soviet Union while masquerading as British patriots. The Soviet blockade of West Berlin in 1948 may have been the result of information obtained from Mr. Philby about the limited stockpile of nuclear weapons held by the United States. Mr. Philby alerted two other Cambridge Five members, Guy Burgess and Donald MacLean, that they were under suspicion, thus allowing them to escape to the U.S.S.R. in 1951. Mr. Philby was frequently under suspicion as the "third man," but was successful in covering his tracks until late 1962, when, at a party in Tel Aviv, a woman named Flora Solomon commented that he was loyal to the Soviets. In January 1963 Mr. Philby defected to the Soviet Union. His remaining years were spent in drunkenness and fornication.

Diplomacy
In Geneva, Switzerland, U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz and Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze began two days of talks aimed at resolving some remaining questions on a treaty between the U.S. and U.S.S.R. on intermediate-range nuclear forces.

Politics and government
U.S. President Ronald Reagan, speaking at a Republican Party fund-raising dinner, endorsed Vice-President George Bush as his successor.

Labour
The Polish parliament approved emergency measures that strengthened the government’s hand in economic matters. The legislation would allow strikes, but only by members of government-supervised unions.

Hockey
NHL
Stanley Cup
Clarence S. Campbell Conference
Division Finals
Detroit 4 @ Edmonton 8 (Edmonton won best-of-seven series 4-1)

Basketball
NBA
Eastern Conference
Semi-Finals
Atlanta 101 @ Boston 110 (Boston led best-of-seven series 1-0)

20 years ago
1993

Weather
The temperature reached 88 F. in Edmonton.

Politics and government
Democrats in the United States Senate broke a Republican filibuster and passed a bill to direct states to provide registration facilities at motor vehicle offices, military recruiting offices, and welfare offices.

Hockey
NHL
Stanley Cup
Clarence S. Campbell Conference
Division Finals
St. Louis 1 @ Toronto 5 (Toronto led best-of-seven series 3-2)
Los Angeles 4 @ Vancouver 3 (2OT) (Los Angeles led best-of-seven series 3-2)

Gary Shuchuck scored at 6:31 of the 2nd overtime period to give the Kings their win over the Canucks at Pacific Coliseum.

Basketball
NBA
Eastern Conference
Semi-Finals
Cleveland 84 @ Chicago 91 (Chicago led best-of-seven series 1-0)

Western Conference
Semi-Finals
San Antonio 89 @ Phoenix 98 (Phoenix led best-of-seven series 1-0)

10 years ago
2003

Died on this date
Noel Redding, 57. U.K. musician. Mr. Redding was best known for playing bass guitar with The Jimi Hendrix Experience from 1966-1969.

Diplomacy
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell met separately with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas. Mr. Sharon said he would not support the April 30 "Road Map to Peace" until the Palestinian Authority stopped anti-Israel violence, but he supported the plan's goal of a Palestinian state. Mr. Abbas accepted the plan, and Mr. Powell urged him to act decisively to disarm terrorist groups. Syria, Jordan, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia also supported the plan.

Politics and government
General Tommy Franks, U.S. military commander in Iraq, said that Iraq's former ruling Ba'ath Party had been dissolved.

More than 50 Democratic Party members of the Texas House of Representatives began two days of crossing the state boundary into Oklahoma in order to leave the House without a quorum and thus prevent action on a redistricting bill unfavourable to their party.

Scandal
Peter Hollingworth resigned as Governor General of Australia amid allegations that he had protected pedophiles in the Anglican Church while he had been archbishop of Brisbane, and that he had raped a woman in Brisbane in the mid-1960s.

Journalism
The New York Times devoted more than four full pages to a story documenting major deceptions and inaccuracies, including plagiarism, in half of 73 articles written by reporter Jayson Blair since October 2002. Despite warnings of problems with Mr. Blair, he continued to win top assignments. Critics blamed the Times fo failure to adequately monitor its reporting, and some argued that Mr. Blair had been advanced quickly and had avoided close scrutiny because he was a Negro.

Disasters
A week of tornadoes in the midwestern and southern United States concluded with 400 tornadoes, twice the previous weekly record, resulting in 48 deaths, hundreds of people injured, and hundreds of buildings levelled. President George W. Bush declared disaster areas in six states.

Hockey
IIHF World Men's Championship
Final
Canada 3 Sweden 2 (OT)