September 20, 2013

160 years ago
1853

Born on this date
Chulalongkorn (Rama V). King of Siam, 1868-1910. Chulalongkorn acceded to the throne upon the death of his father Mongkut (Rama IV). He achieved political, economic, and social reforms, including the abolition of slavery, while making territorial concessions to the British and French. King Rama V died of kidney disease on October 23, 1910 at the age of 57 and was succeeded by his son Vajiravudh (Rama VI).

Technology
Elisah Graves Otis sold his first "hoist machines," or elevators.

150 years ago
1863

Died on this date
Jacob Grimm, 78. German philologist and author. Mr. Grimm and his brother Wilhelm were known for Deutsches Wörterbuch--their dictionary of the German language--and Kinder-und Hausmärchen (Children's and Household Tales) (1815), popularly known as Grimm's Fairy Tales.

War
In the U.S. Civil War, the Battle of Chickamauga in nothwestern Georgia ended in a victory for Confederate forces commanded by General Braxton Bragg over Union forces commanded by Major General William Rosecrans. It was the most significant Confederate victory in the western theatre of the war, and produced the second-highest number of casualties after the Battle of Gettysburg. It was also the first major battle of the war to be fought in Georgia.

120 years ago
1893

Transportation
Charles Duryea and his brother Frank road-tested the first American-made gasoline-powered automobile in Springfield, Massachusetts.

100 years ago
1913

Born on this date
John Collins. U.S. musician. Mr. Collins was a jazz guitarist who performed with Art Tatum, Billie Holiday, and other prominent artists in the 1930s and '40s. He began playing electric guitar in the late '30s. Mr. Collins joined the King Cole Trio in 1950 and remained with the trio until Mr. Cole's death in 1965. He then played with Patti Page, Bobby Troup, and others, and taught in Los Angeles. Mr. Collins died of cancer on October 4, 2001, two weeks after his 88th birthday.

Football
CRU
IRFU-MRU (exhibition)
Hamilton 26 @ Winnipeg Warriors 0

ARU
Edmonton (0-1) 6 @ Calgary (1-0) 16

Messrs. Hickey and White scored touchdowns for the Tigers as they beat the Eskimos before 4,000 fans at Hillhurst Park. Mr. White scored his touchdown when a field goal attempt by Calgary's Arnold Wark was partially blocked, and the ball was fumbled by an Edmonton player in the Eskimos' end zone.

80 years ago
1933

Died on this date
Annie Besant, 85. U.K. political and social activist. Mrs. Besant, the estranged wife of an Anglican clergyman, was a leading speaker for the socialist Fabian Society and the Marxist Social Democratic Federation. A New Ager long before the term had been invented, she became president of the Theosophical Society and helped to establish Central Hindu College in India and Le Droit Humain, the first overseas Lodge of the International Order of Co-Freemasonry, in England. Mrs. Besant supported a wide range of worthless causes, from feminism and socialism to home rule for India.

70 years ago
1943

War
German U-boat U-305, using a new acoustic torpedo, hit and sank Royal Canadian Navy Town Class destroyer HMCS St. Croix, while she was escorting convoy ON.202, south of Iceland. 65 members of the ship's company perished; five officers and 76 men are rescued by HMS Itchen. However, only two days later, the Itchen was also torpedoed by an enemy submarine; only one St. Croix sailor, Stoker W. Fisher, survived the two sinkings. One of the men lost was Surgeon Lieutenant W. L. M. King, RCNVR, Prime Minister Mackenzie King’s nephew. Australian troops defeated Imperial Japanese forces in the Battle of Kaiapit in New Guinea. Yugoslavian spokesmen in London said that 2,000 Germans had been killed in eight days of fighting for the Adriatic port of Split, which Yugoslavian partisans claimed to hold. French commandos from North Africa were reported in Corsica assisting the patriots opposing German occupation forces on the French island.

Defense
U.S. Army Air Force officials disclosed an electronically-controlled autopilot holding American planes on a steady course during bombing runs, providing a "steady platform" required for high-level precision bombing.

60 years ago
1953

Football
CRU
IRFU
Ottawa (3-2) 21 @ Montreal (3-3) 37

Chuck Hunsinger scored 4 touchdowns to lead the Alouettes over the Rough Riders at Delorimier Stadium. One of Mr. Hunsinger's touchdowns came on a pass from quarterback Sam Etcheverry, who also threw touchdown passes to Red O'Quinn and Joey Pal. Ottawa halfback Avatus Stone completed a 20-yard touchdown pass to Bob Simpson and rushed for a touchdown of his own.

Canadian intermediate
Exhibition
Victoria 5 @ Vancouver (1-0) 56

Vic Chapman scored 24 points on 3 touchdowns, 4 converts, a field goal, and 2 singles, and Peter Van Harten scored 4 touchdowns as the Cubs routed the Vampires before 3,594 fans at Capilano Stadium in the Cubs' first game as an intermediate squad before joining the Western Interprovincial Football Union in 1954 as the British Columbia Lions. Bobo Sikorsky and Chuck Dubuque also scored touchdowns for the Cubs.

50 years ago
1963

Hit parade
#1 single in Ireland (IRMA): Kiss Me Quick--Brendan Bowyer (3rd week at #1)

Edmonton's Top 10 (CJCA)
1 Three Rows Over--Bobby Curtola
2 Blue Velvet--Bobby Vinton
3 Martian Hop--The Ran-dells
4 Blue Bayou--Roy Orbison
5 Judy, Judy, Judy--Johnny Tillotson
6 A Walkin' Miracle--The Essex
7 My Boyfriend's Back--The Angels
8 Then He Kissed Me--The Crystals
9 Wham--Lonnie Mack
10 Brown-Eyed Handsome Man--Buddy Holly

40 years ago
1973

Hit parade
#1 single in Ireland (IRMA): The Dean and I--10 C.C.

Died on this date
Ben Webster, 64. U.S. musician. Mr. Webster was a jazz tenor saxophonist who played in a number of bands, most notably with Duke Ellington's orchestra from 1935-1943, where he was a featured soloist. He died of a cerebral hemorrhage.

Jim Croce, 30; Maury Muehlheisen, 24. U.S. musicians. Mr. Croce was a singer-songwriter whose single Bad, Bad Leroy Brown had recently reached #1 in the Billboard Hot 100 chart. His other hits included You Don't Mess Around with Jim (1972); Operator (That's Not the Way it Feels) (1972); I Got a Name (1973); Time in a Bottle (1973-1974); and I'll Have to Say I Love You in a Song (1974). Mr. Croce and Mr. Muehlheisen, his lead guitarist, had just finished a performance at Prather Coliseum on the campus of Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, Louisiana, and had chartered a small plane to fly to their next engagement at Austin College in Sherman, Texas. The plane crashed on takeoff, instantly killing the two musicians plus pilot Robert Elliott, 57; comedian George Stevens, Mr. Croce's opening act; Kenneth Cortose, Mr. Croce's booking agent; and Dennis Rast, Mr. Croce's road manager. I Got a Name was released as a single the next day; Time in a Bottle spent two weeks at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in late December 1973-early January 1974.

Scandal
A week after the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. had proposed an out-of-court compromise over the release of tapes of White House conversations, lawyers for U.S. President Richard Nixon and Archibald Cox, the special prosecutor appointed to investigate the 1972 break-in at the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C. and the subsequent cover-up, told the court that they had been unable to reach a compromise.

Tennis
Billie Jean King defeated Bobby Riggs 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 in a $100,000 winner-take-all "battle of the sexes" match before a record U.S. tennis crowd 30,472 fans at the Astrodome in Houston in the most famous of the made-for-television pseudo-sports events that were popular in the 1970s. Recently, a man has come forward with the accusation that Mr. Riggs threw the match in order to settle debts owed to gangsters on sports bets.

30 years ago
1983

Hit parade
#1 single in Sweden (Topplistan): Moonlight Shadow--Mike Oldfield

War
U.S. Marines were in Suk al Gharb, Lebanon, reportedly to gather intelligence. In Washington, the administration of U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Congressional leaders agreed to a compromise, based on the War Powers Resolution, that would allow the administration to keep U.S. troops in the multinational force in Lebanon for 18 months from the date that Congress approved the resolution.

Oil
The Canadian and Alberta governments and Esso Resources Canada agreed to a scaled-down Cold Lake oil sands project.

20 years ago
1993

Hit parade
#1 single in Germany (Media Control): What's Up?--4 Non Blondes (5th week at #1)

Died on this date
Erich Hartmann, 71. German aviator. Mr. Hartmann, a Luftwaffe pilot during World War II known to his Soviet enemies as "The Black Devil," was the highest-scoring fighter ace in the history of aerial warfare, claiming 352 victories in 1,404 combat missions without ever being shot down by enemy fire.

Disasters
Oregon Governor Barbara Roberts declared a state of emergency after a series of earthquakes killed two people and badly damaged buildings.

10 years ago
2003

Died on this date
Simon Muzenda, 80. Zimbabwean politician. Mr. Muzenda served under dictator Robert Mugabe as Zimbabwe's Deputy Prime Minister from 1980-1987 and Vice President from 1987 until his death after a period of poor health.

Gordon Mitchell, 80. U.S. actor. Mr. Mitchell, born Charles Allen Pendleton, was a high school teacher and bodybuilder who began to obtain roles in movies. He appeared, often in uncredited bit parts, in movies such as The Ten Commandments (1956); Spartacus (1960); Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967); and Fellini Satyricon (1969), and in many less reputable productions.

Politics and government
Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi was comfortably re-elected as leader of the governing Liberal Democratic Party. Despite internal criticism for his reform program and the slow pace of economic recovery, Mr. Koizumi was widely supported because of his personal popularity.

Protest
The death of prisoner Hassan Evan Naseem sparked a day of rioting in Malé, Maldives.

Football
CFL
British Columbia (8-5) 26 @ Winnipeg (9-5) 20

CIS
Laval 94 Sherbrooke 0
Manitoba 16 @ Alberta (1-2) 71

The Golden Bears took a 43-0 halftime lead and coasted to victory over the Bisons at Foote Field in Edmonton, tying a team record for points in a single game. The Golden Bears beat the University of Alberta at Calgary Dinosaurs 71-0 in 1964. Jarred Winkel set a U of A single game record for yards rushing with 290, on just 15 carries; he rushed for touchdowns of 82 and 95 yards.