August 2, 2013

225 years ago
1788

Died on this date
Thomas Gainsborough, 61. English painter. Mr. Gainsborough was known for his portraits and landscapes. His most famous painting was probably The Blue Boy (1770).

140 years ago
1873

Transportation
The Clay Street Hill Railroad began operating the first cable car in San Francisco's famous cable car system.

110 years ago
1903

World events
The Ilinden–Preobrazhenie Uprising, an unsuccessful action led by the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization against Ottoman Turkey, took place.

100 years ago
1913

Born on this date
Hal Block. U.S. comedian and writer. Mr. Block was one of the top comedy writers of the 1940s, working with Bob Hope, Abbott, and Costello, and many others, achieving success in radio and Broadway, and making major contributions to United Services Overseas (USO) tours during World War II. He was a regular panelist on the television quiz show What's My Line? (1950-1953), but his style of humour clashed with others on the show, and he ignored warnings about his behaviour, resulting in his dismissal. Mr. Block's career in entertainment gradually declined over the next few years, and by 1960 he was working in the investment business. He died on June 16, 1981 at the age of 67, two months after being severely burned in a fire in his apartment.

90 years ago
1923

Died on this date
Warren G. Harding, 57. 29th President of the United States of America, 1921-1923. Mr. Harding took ill and died in his room at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco after a tour up the Pacific coast. He was succeeded as President by Vice-President Calvin Coolidge, who took the oath of office from his father, a notary public in Vermont, where Mr. Coolidge was vacationing.

70 years ago
1943

War
The U.S. Navy Motor Torpedo Boat PT-109 was rammed by the Japanese destroyer Amagiri off the Solomon Islands and sank. Lieutenant (and future U.S. President) John F. Kennedy saved all but two of his crew. Allied troops moved forward on all sectors of the 120-mile Sicilian front. Soviet Red Army forces advanced northwest and southwest of Orel, killing 1,600 German troops and occupying 70 villages, including Znamenskoye.

Aviation
U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Cass Hough, in 25,000-foot and 18,000-foot dives with Lightning and Thunderbolt fighters, travelled faster than the speed of sound, or more than 780 miles per hour.

Protest
An unsuccessful rebellion by prisoners took place in the Nazi death camp of Treblinka in Poland.

Five Negroes were killed, 500 were injured, and 500 jailed in 12 hours of rioting in Harlem, New York City, with damage and theft loss estimated at $5 million.

50 years ago
1963

Hit parade
#1 single in Ireland (IRMA): I'm Confessin' (That I Love You)--Frank Ifield

Died on this date
Oliver La Farge, 61. U.S. anthropologist and author. Mr. La Farge explored Olmec sites in Mexico in 1925 and Native American sites in New Mexico after moving there in 1933. He wrote fiction and non-fiction, often about Native American culture. Mr. La Farge's novel Laughing Boy (1929), about a Navajo's difficulties in attempting to reconcile his culture with that of the United States, won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

Politics and government
Alberta Premier Ernest Manning spoke out against Canadian Prime Minister Lester Pearson's recently-formed Committee Bilingualism and Biculturalism, warning that it would play into the hands of Quebec nationalists.

Boxing
Blair Richardson (39-4-1) retained his Canadian middleweight title with a technical knockout of Ron Brothers (14-6) at 2:59 of the 4th round in Glace Bay, Nova Scotia.

Football
NFL
College All-Star Game @ Soldier Field, Chicago
College All-Stars 20 Green Bay Packers 17

Quarterback Ron Vander Kelen of the University of Wisconsin Badgers led the All-Stars to victory over the defending National Football League champion Packers. It was the last victory for the All-Stars in the annual contest, which was discontinued after 1976.

40 years ago
1973

Hit parade
#1 single in Ireland (IRMA): Welcome Home--Peters and Lee (3rd week at #1)

Space
Several days after the location of a leak in one of the four sets of small thruster rockets in the Apollo spacecraft taking Skylab 2 astronauts Alan Bean, Jack Lousma, and Owen Garriott to the Skylab space station, a malfunction in a second set of thruster rockets raised concern over Apollo's ability to bring the crew back to Earth. Preparations to outfit a rescue ship were begun.

Scandal
Former Central Intelligence Agency Director Richard Helms, testifying before the U.S. Senate Select Committe on Campaign Activities, said that he had to resist White House pressures to involve the CIA in the cover up of the June 1972 break-in at the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C. Mr. Helms' deputy, Robert Cushman, stated that a request from presidential aide John Ehrlichman had prompted him to rewrite a memo that would have linked Mr. Ehrlichman to Watergate conspirator E. Howard Hunt.

Disasters
50-53 people died in a fire that gutted a £2-million leisure resort in the Isle of Man.

Football
CFL
Saskatchewan (1-1) 15 @ Calgary (1-0) 23

Tom Forzani joined brothers Joe and John to make the Stampeders the first team since the Toronto Argonauts in the late 1930s to have three brothers as teammates at the same time. Tom, in his first CFL game, caught a touchdown pass from Peter Liske, and Bob Wyatt rushed for a touchdown as the Stampeders defeated the Roughriders before 23,616 fans at McMahon Stadium. For Mr. Liske, who had starred with the Stampeders from 1966-1968, it was his first game back in the CFL after 4 years in the AFL and NFL.

30 years ago
1983

Died on this date
James Jamerson, 47. U.S. musician. Mr. Jamerson played bass guitar on most of the hit records produced by the Motown Corporation in the 1960s and early 1970s. He died from the effects of heavy drinking.

Economics and finance
The United States Census Bureau reported that about 34.4 million Americans were living in poverty, a jump of more than 2 million in a year and an increase of 10 million since 1978. The total equalled 15% of the population, the highest rate since 1965, when it was 17.3%.

25 years ago
1988

Died on this date
Raymond Carver, 50. U.S. writer. Mr. Carver was known for his short stories. He died of lung cancer.

Music
The soundtrack album from the movie Cocktail was released on Elektra Records. The album which included songs such as Kokomo by the Beach Boys, was much better than the movie.

Diplomacy
Talks between Angola and Namibia began in Geneva. The U.S.A., represented by Assistant Secretary of State Chester Crocker, acted as mediator. Interested parties included South Africa and Cuba, both of which had troops in Angola.

Labour
U.S. President Ronald Reagan said he would neither sign nor veto a bill requiring companies to notify workers in advance of layoffs or factory closings, but would allow it to become law without his signature. He was reportedly under pressure from Vice-President and presumptive Republican party presidential nominee George Bush and other Republicans not to veto the bill, which was strongly supported by American workers.

Economics and finance
The United States Commerce Department reported that the index of leading economic indicators had risen 1.4% in June.

Football
CFL
Toronto (3-1) 41 @ Ottawa (0-4) 7

The Rough Riders' loss to the Argonauts at Lansdowne Park was their first game under new head coach Bob Weber, who had replaced the fired Fred Glick.

20 years ago
1993

Hit parade
#1 single in Germany (Media Control): Mr. Vain--Culture Beat (7th week at #1)

Economics and finance
After heavy pressure from currency speculators, European Community officials scrapped the exchange rate mechanism designed to bring the currencies of EC member countries into a fiscal equilibrium and a single currency by 1999.

10 years ago
2003

Disasters
A state of emergency was declared in British Columbia because of forest fires in the Okanagan and Kamloops regions.

Football
CFL
Winnipeg (5-3) 37 @ Hamilton (0-7) 20