July 19, 2013

Born on this date
Happy Birthday, Chris Walker and Chris Woods!

460 years ago
1553

Britannica
Lady Jane Grey was replaced by Mary I as Queen of England after a reign of only nine days.

425 years ago
1588

War
The Spanish Armada was sighted in the English Channel.

170 years ago
1843

Transportation
The Brunel steamship SS Great Britain was launched, becoming the first ocean-going craft with an iron hull or screw propeller and the largest vessel afloat in the world.

110 years ago
1903

Cycling
Maurice Garin won the first Tour de France.

100 years ago
1913

Died on this date
Clímaco Calderón Reyes, 60. 15th President of Colombia, 1882. Mr. Calderón was Colombia's Attorney General when he succeeded to the presidency on December 21, 1882 upon the death of Francisco Javier Zaldúa. Mr. Calderón resigned the presidency the next day and handed the office to José Eusebio Otálora. Mr. Calderón served as Colombia's Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1904-1906.

Baseball
In a Northern League game, the Winona Highbrows blanked the Virginia (Minnesota) Ore Diggers 9-0. The losing pitcher, former major league star Rube Waddell, saw his record for the season drop to 4-6. He passed out after the game and was diagnosed with pleurisy. Mr. Waddell, 36, never pitched again.

70 years ago
1943

Died on this date
Katya Budanova, 26. U.S.S.R. military aviatrix. Miss Budanova and fellow Soviet pilot Lydia Litvyak were the best female flying aces of World War II. Miss Budanova had 11 victories in combat, but was fatally shot down by the German Luftwaffe.

War
U.K. forces engaged German troops in the Catania plains in the greatest battle of the Sicilian campaign. Allied--mostly American--planes bombed Rome for the first time, blasting railroad yards and airports east and south of the city's centre. U.S. forces made a limited advance and enlarged their beachhead at Lilio, east of Munda, New Georgia Island. Allied forces drove back Japanese troops in a series of skirmishes on the slopes of Mount Tanbu in the Komlatum sector of New Guinea.

Politics and government
An eastern conference of the U.S. Republican party Postwar Policy Association warned the party that narrow nationalism was dead and that "isolationist stuffed shirts" must be purged.

The American-Puerto Rican commission began consideration of home rule for the island.

Technology
General Electric Laboratory in Schenectady, New York announced the development of photographic equipment with an exposure of one-millionth of a second, which could photograph a rifle bullet in flight.

Oil
The world's larget pipeline--from Longview, Texas to Phoenixville, Pennsylvania--was completed, providing the eastern United States with 300,000 barrels daily.

60 years ago
1953

Died on this date
Maurice J. Tobin, 52. U.S. politician. Mr. Tobin, a Democrat, was Mayor of Boston (1938-1945); Governor of Massachusetts (1945-1947); and U.S. Secretary of Labor (1948-1953) in the administration of President Harry Truman. He opposed racial discrimination in hiring and supported the rights of workers. As Secretary of Labor, Mr. Tobin succeeded in moving several smaller bureaus into his department, thus increasing its influence. He died of a heart attack, six months after leaving office.

50 years ago
1963

Hit parade
#1 single in Ireland (IRMA): I Like It--Gerry and the Pacemakers (3rd week at #1)

Aviation
Joe Walker flew a North American X-15 rocket plane to a record altitude of 106,010 metres (347,800 feet) on X-15 Flight 90. Exceeding an altitude of 100 km, this flight qualified as a human spaceflight under international convention.

Diplomacy
Tanganyikan President Julius Nyerere visited Ottawa.

Football
CFL
Fullback and linebacker Jon Rechner, who had been traded by the Toronto Argonauts to the Edmonton Eskimos with four other players and $15,000 for quarterback Jackie Parker on February 18, was traded back to the Argonauts for offensive end Bruce Claridge.

40 years ago
1973

Hit parade
#1 single in Ireland (IRMA): Welcome Home--Peters and Lee

War
Michel Gauvin, head of the Canadian delegation with the International Commission of Control and Supervision in South Vietnam, left South Vietnam, charging that the Communists had created insurmountable obstacles to policing the cease-fire that had been in place since late January. He also charged that the Polish and Hungarian delegations had consistently refused to recognize violations by the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong.

Diplomacy
The first carload of Libyans demanding an immediate merger between their country and Egypt arrived at Mersa Matruh, 120 miles into Egypt.

Scandal
Former Assistant U.S. Attorney General Robert Mardian testified before the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Campaign Activities that G. Gordon Liddy had given him the clear impression that President Richard Nixon had authorized the 1971 burglary of former Defense Department employee Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist's office. He also said that Attorney General John Mitchell had not denied Mr. Liddy's statement to Mr. Mardian that Mr. Mitchell had approved Mr. Liddy's $250,000 electronic eavesdropping scheme. Mr. Mardian denied that he had been involved in the break-in at the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C. in June 1972 and the subsequent cover-up, disputing the testimony of five other witnesses.

Football
CFL
Pre-season
Ottawa (1-1-1) 14 @ Montreal (3-1) 17

30 years ago
1983

Diplomacy
Nicaragua announced that it was ready to join talks on peace in Central America. Sandanista regime leader Daniel Ortega called for talks on a non-aggression pact with Honduras and for an end to military activity aimed at any other Central American country.

Medicine
The first three-dimensional reconstruction of a human head in a computed tomography was published by Michael Vannier, J.L. Marsh, and J.O. Warren.

Science
A reconstructed skeleton of a recently-discovered carnivorous dinosaur was unveiled at the Natural History Museum in London.

Economics and finance
The United States Commerce Department reported that housing starts had declined 2.9% in June.

25 years ago
1988

Politics and government
U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy (Massachusetts) addressed the Democratic National Convention at the Omni in Atlanta, repeating the phrase "Where was George?" when mentioning various decisions made by the administration of President Ronald Reagan. At the Republican National Convention a month later, someone held up a sign reading "For your information, he was home with his wife and sober." Rev. Jesse Jackson, who had unsuccessfully sought the Democratic presidential nomination, addressed the convention and appealed to the party and to the American people to find "common ground" and compared the nation to a quilt made from diverse strands. The party approved a 5,000-word statement of principles as its platform.



20 years ago
1993

Hit parade
#1 single in Germany (Media Control): Mr. Vain--Culture Beat (5th week at #1)

Died on this date
Red Prysock, 67. U.S. musician. Wilburt Prysock was a jazz and rhythm and blues saxophonist who performed with bands of artists such as Roy Milton and Cootie Williams, and led his own band in the 1950s and '60s. His biggest hit single was Hand Clappin' (1955), which reached #73 on the Music Vendor pop singles chart. Mr. Prysock's brother Arthur was a jazz and rhythm and blues singer from the 1950s through the '80s, and Red often played saxophone on his brother's later records.

Diplomacy
Iraq bowed to international pressure and agreed to accept United Nations monitoring to prevent building weapons of mass destruction.

Abominations
U.S. President Bill Clinton presented his "don't ask, don't tell" policy for allowing sodomites and lesbians to serve in the military. Generals and admirals supported the compromise proposals, which limited the ability of commanders to open investigations.

Scandal
U.S. President Bill Clinton fired Federal Bureau of Investigation director William Sessions after an internal ethics report had severely criticized Mr. Sessions' conduct, but he had refused to resign.

The former postmaster of the United States House of Representatives said that he had helped Rep. Dan Rostenkowski (Democrat--Illinois) embezzle $21,300.

10 years ago
2003

Died on this date
Bill Bright, 81. U.S. evangelist. Mr. Bright founded the movement Campus Crusade for Christ in 1951 in southern California. The movement eventually spread to 190 countries.

War
The cease-fire in Liberia was broken when the rebel group Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy attacked the capital city of Monrovia.

Football
CFL
Calgary (2-3) 25 @ Montreal (4-1) 36