September 27, 2013

175 years ago
1838

Born on this date
Lawrence Sullivan Ross. C.S. military officer and U.S. politician. Mr. Ross was a Texas Ranger who became a general in the army of the Confederate States of America in the U.S. Civil War. He served as Governor of Texas from 1887-1891. Mr. Ross died on January 3, 1898 at the age of 59.

125 years ago
1888

Vancouverana
Mayor David Oppenheimer officially opened the 1,001-acre Stanley Park at a ceremony on Prospect Point, with a 20-piece marching band, a parade which stretched as far as Powell Street, and the attendance of dignitaries from all levels of government and industry, including provincial secretary John Robson and Canadian Pacific Railway superintendent Harry Abbott. The park was named for Canadian Governor General Lord Stanley, who officially dedicated it n October 29, 1889. The peninsula was designated as a military reserve in the early 1860s in a survey conducted by the Royal Engineers.

Baseball
Ed Crane pitched a no-hitter for the New York Giants as they defeated the Washington Senators 3-0 at the Polo Grounds in New York in a game that was called because of darkness after 7 innings.

110 years ago
1903

Disasters
The Southern Railway train officially known as Fast Mail but informally as Old 97 derailed at Stillhouse Trestle near Danville, Virginia while en route from Monroe, Virginia to Spencer, North Carolina, killing 11 of the 18 men aboard and injuring the other 7. The crash inspired the song Wreck of the Old 97, a major hit in the early years of country music.

100 years ago
1913

Born on this date
Albert Ellis. U.S. psychologist. Dr. Ellis was a secular humanist who worked with Alfred Kinsey in helping to promote a liberal view of sex, and was seen as one of the founders of the American sexual revolution. In 1955 he developed Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT), in which the client uses rationality to understand that his personal philosophy contains beliefs that are contributing to his pain. Dr. Ellis was thus recognized as one of the founders of cognitive-behavioural therapies. He died on July 24, 2007 at the age of 93.

Football
SRU
Moose Jaw 1 @ Saskatoon 27

IRFU-ARU
Exhibition
Hamilton 19 @ Calgary 2

ARU
Edmonton (1-1) 19 University of Alberta (0-1) 0

Mr. Graham scored 2 touchdowns for the Eskimos in their win over the University of Alberta at Diamond Park.

75 years ago
1938

Transportation
The British ocean liner RMS Queen Elizabeth was launched in Glasgow.

Football
WIFU-U.S. college
Exhibition
Minnesota State Teachers College 0 @ Winnipeg 20

The game at Osborne Stadium was played entirely under U.S. rules.

70 years ago
1943

War
U.K. forces occupied the southeastern Italian air and rail centre of Foggia without opposition. U.S.S.R. troops captured the Nizhne-Deprovsk suburb of Dnepopetrovsk on the east bank of the Dnieper River.

Diplomacy
The Argentine Foreign Office announced that closer relations would be sought with the United Kingdom.

Defense
U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Congress to appropriate an additional $750 million for the Navy.

60 years ago
1953

Baseball
American League owners deadlocked 4-4 in a vote, denying the St. Louis Browns permission to move. On the diamond, the Chicago White edged the Browns 2-1 in 11 innings before 3,174 fans at Busch Stadium in St. Louis in the last game the Browns ever played. Two days later, another vote went 8-0 in favour of the Browns moving, and the day after that, the team was sold by Bill Veeck to a syndicate in Baltimore, who moved the team there. The Browns scored their last run in the bottom of the 3rd inning on a double by Johnny Groth and a single by Ed Mickelson. For Mr. Mickelson, the run-scoring single was his third and last major league hit. The White Sox tied the game in the top of the 7th inning on Jim Rivera's 11th home run of the season.

50 years ago
1963

Hit parade
#1 single in Ireland (IRMA): Kiss Me Quick--Brendan Bowyer (4th week at #1)

#1 single in Edmonton: Three Rows Over--Bobby Curtola (2nd week at #1)

On television tonight
Twilight Zone, hosted by Rod Serling, on CBS
Tonight's episode: In Praise of Pip, starring Jack Klugman and Billy Mumy

The Alfred Hitchock Hour, on CBS
Tonight's episode: A Home Away from Home, starring Ray Milland and Claire Griswold

The programs were the first episodes of the season for both shows.

Music
The single Love of the Loved/Shy of Love by Cilla Black was released on Parlophone Records. Love of the Loved was written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney.

Religion
Three days after appearing in Calgary, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, leader of the Spiritual Regeneration Movement, delivered a public lecture on "deep meditation" in the Oak Room of the St. Regis Hotel in Winnipeg.

Boxing
George Chuvalo (25-7-1) won a 10-round majority decision over Mike DeJohn (46-12-1) in a heavyweight bout at the Louisville Convention Center; it was Mr. DeJohn's last fight.



40 years ago
1973

Hit parade
#1 single in Ireland (IRMA): The Ballroom Blitz--The Sweet

Space
Soyuz 12, with ocosmonauts Vasily Lazarev ang Oleg Makaroy aboard, lifted off from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to begin a two-day mission to check modifications in the Soyuz spacecraft. It was the first Soviet manned mission since the deaths of the three-man crew of Soyuz 11 upon re-entry on June 30, 1971.

Disasters
At least 50 miners in northern Thailand were killed when a mine collapsed because of torrential rain.

Baseball
Nolan Ryan (21-16) of the California Angels recorded 16 strikeouts as he pitched a complete game, defeating the Minnesota Twins 5-4 in 11 innings at Anaheim Stadium. The strikeouts gave him 383 season, breaking the major league record for a single season of 382 set by Sandy Koufax of the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1965. Rich Reese was Mr. Ryan's final strikeout victim of 1973.

30 years ago
1983

Hit parade
#1 single in Sweden (Topplistan): Moonlight Shadow--Mike Oldfield (2nd week at #1)

Died on this date
Wilfred Burchett, 72. Australian journalist. Mr. Burchett reported on Asian wars such as those in Korea and Vietnam, and his reporting was coloured by his Communist sympathies. Recent evidence has been unearthed to support the accusation that Mr. Burchett was on the payroll of the KGB, the Soviet secret police. He was the first foreign journalist to enter Hiroshima after the dropping of the atomic bomb on that city in 1945. Mr. Burchett died 11 days after his 72nd birthday.

Diplomacy
While U.S. Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger was visiting China, Chinese Prime Minister Zhao Ziyang told reporters that "the main obstacle in the way of developing Sino-United States relations is the question of Taiwan." He brushed off the idea that the U.S.A. and China exchange military training missions, one of Mr. Weinberger's objectives.

Business
Three days after firing 65% of its employees and filing for bankruptcy, Continental Airlines resumed limited operations. Eastern Airlines chairman Frank Borman asked his employees to accept a pay cut, stating that the alternative might be reorganization under bankruptcy laws. Eastern's major unions indicated that they approved the appeal.

Baseball
Tim Raines of the Montreal Expos hit a 3-run home run against the St. Louis Cardinals at Olympic Stadium in Montreal, becoming the first major league player to bat in 70 or more runs and steal 70 or more bases in the same season.

25 years ago
1988

Politics and government
The National League for Democracy was formed by Aung San Suu Kyi and various others to help fight against dictatorship in Myanmar.

Hockey
NHL
Guy Lafleur, who had retired early in the 1984-85 season--his 14th with the club in a Hall of Fame career--signed a one-year contract with the New York Rangers.

20 years ago
1993

Hit parade
#1 single in Germany (Media Control): What's Up?--4 Non Blondes (6th week at #1)

Died on this date
Jimmy Doolittle, 96. U.S. aviator and military officer. Mr. Doolittle was a pioneer military aviator in the 1920s who left the United States Army in 1930 and set a speed record for land planes in 1932 of 296 miles per hour. In 1940 he returned to the Army, and on April 18, 1942, led 16 B-25 bombers on a raid on five Japanese cities, including Tokyo. The Doolittle Raid was the first retaliatory air raid on the Japanese homeland after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and had a significant positive effect on American morale. The movie Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944) was a dramatization of the raid, with Spencer Tracy playing Mr. Doolittle. Mr. Doolittle returned to reserve status in 1946 as a lieutenant general and retired from active service in 1959. In retirement he was promoted to four-star general.

War
Separatist rebels in the Georgian state of Abkhazia violated a United Nations cease-fire, seized the town of Sukhumi, and began massacring civilians. Georgian leader Eduard Scheverdnadze, who had gone to the town to bolster the defense and call for volunteers, returned to the capital of Tbilisi as thousand of refugees attempted to flee to safety.

10 years ago
2003

Died on this date
Donald O'Connor, 78. U.S. entertainer. Mr. O'Connor was a song-and-dance man who starred in the Francis the Talking Mule series of comedy movies in the 1950s, but is best remembered for his co-starring role in the musical Singin' in the Rain (1952).

Space
The Swedish-designed European Space Agency satellite Small Missions for Advanced Research in Technology-1 (SMART-1) satellite was launched from Guiana Space Centre in Kourou, French Guiana. The satellite's mission was to orbit the Moon.

Diplomacy
At a joint conference with U.S. President George W. Bush at Camp David, Maryland, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that his country would go ahead with its plan to help Iran build a nuclear reactor. Mr. Bush had been trying for two years to persuade Mr. Putin to end the $800-million contract out of concern that materials for the program could be used to build weapons.

Football
CFL
Montreal (12-2) 30 @ Hamilton (1-14) 17

CIS
Simon Fraser 21 @ Alberta 39