December 21, 2013

Born on this date
Happy Birthday, Juliette Richard!

175 years ago
1838

Died on this date
Joseph Cardinal and Joseph Duquet. Canadian rebels. The Lower Canada rebels were executed in Montreal.

100 years ago
1913

Born on this date
John Boulting; Roy Boulting. U.K. movie directors, producers, and screenwriters. The Boulting twins were responsible for such films as Brighton Rock (1947); Seven Days to Noon (1950); The Magic Box (1951); I'm All Right Jack (1959); and Heavens Above! (1963). John died on June 17, 1985 at the age of 71; Roy died on November 5, 2001 at the age of 87.

Popular culture
The first crossword puzzle was published in the New York World.

90 years ago
1923

Disasters
The Dixmude, originally the Zeppelin L 72, and given by Germany to France in reparation after World War I, exploded in midair off the coast of Sicily, killing all 42 crewmen and 10 passengers aboard. The airship had been recommissioned as a French Navy craft.



80 years ago
1933

Politics and government
The Dominion of Newfoundland reverted to the status of a Crown colony of Great Britain after bankruptcy.

70 years ago
1943

Movies
A Film Daily poll named the best starring performances in 1943 as those of Paul Lukas in Watch on the Rhine and Greer Garson in Random Harvest, originally released in December 1942.

War
The 2nd Canadian Infantry Brigade attacked the Italian town of Ortona, starting a week-long battle, a savage house-to-house fight against heavily-barricaded, "mouseholed" German infantry. 800 U.K. Royal Air Force bombers dropped nearly 2,000 tons of explosives on Frankfurt. The Soviet offensive south of Nevel in White Russia engulfed 100 more inhabited places. A Chinese offensive in the central Chinese "rice bowl" captured the towns of Lihsien, Nanhsien, Ansiang, and Tsingshih in three days of fighting.

Diplomacy
Bolivian Foreign Minister Jose Tamayo sent a note to all foreign diplomats in La Paz stating that the new government intended to abide by all international obligations.

Technology
Joseph Leon Therriault of Saint Hilaire, New Brunswick patented wood molding Weatherstripping for windows and doors.

Labour
B.M. Jewell, chairman of a joint committee representing 1.1 million workers of 15 non-operating railroad unions, announced that they would join the strike called for December 30 by the five operating brotherhoods, as the U.S. Congress adjourned without approving an 8c-per-hour pay increase.

50 years ago
1963

Hit parade
#1 single in Australia (Kent Music Report): You'll Never Walk Alone--Gerry and the Pacemakers (2nd week at #1)

#1 single in France: Si Je Chante--Sylvie Vartan (2nd week at #1)

#1 single in Italy (FIMI): L'età dell'amore--Françoise Hardy

#1 single in West Germany (Media Control): Rote Lippen soll man küssen--Cliff Richard and the Shadows (3rd week at #1)

#1 single in the U.K. (New Musical Express): I Want to Hold Your Hand--The Beatles (3rd week at #1)

#1 single in the U.S.A. (Billboard): Dominique--The Singing Nun (3rd week at #1)

U.S.A. Top 10 (Cash Box)
1 Dominique--The Singing Nun (4th week at #1)
2 Louie Louie--The Kingsmen
--[Paul Revere and the Raiders]
3 There! I've Said it Again--Bobby Vinton
4 I'm Leaving it Up to You--Dale & Grace
5 Since I Fell for You--Lenny Welch
6 You Don't Have to Be a Baby to Cry--The Caravelles
7 Drip Drop--Dion Di Muci
8 Be True to Your School--The Beach Boys
9 Everybody--Tommy Roe
10 Talk Back Trembling Lips--Johnny Tillotson

Singles entering the chart were Whispering by Nino Tempo & April Stevens (#68); Anyone Who Had a Heart by Dionne Warwick (#73); Daisy Petal Pickin' by Jimmy Gilmer and the Fireballs (#78); Little Saint Nick by the Beach Boys (#79); Baby, I Love You by the Ronettes (#81); It's All in the Game by Cliff Richard (#85); A'Soalin by Peter, Paul and Mary (#86); Do You Hear What I Hear by Bing Crosby (#90); We Belong Together by Jimmy Velvet (#94); I Can't Stop Talking About You by Steve & Eydie (#95); White Christmas by Andy Williams (#97); and Baby's Gone by Gene Thomas (#100).

U.S.A. Top 10 (Music Reporter)
1 Louie Louie--The Kingsmen
--Paul Revere and the Raiders
2 You Don't Have to Be a Baby to Cry--The Caravelles
3 Dominique--The Singing Nun
4 Be True to Your School--The Beach Boys
5 Wonderful Summer--Robin Ward
6 Since I Fell for You--Lenny Welch
7 Drip Drop--Dion Di Muci
8 Popsicles and Icicles--The Murmaids
9 Talk Back Trembling Lips--Johnny Tillotson
--Ernest Ashworth
10 There! I've Said it Again--Bobby Vinton

Singles entering the chart included Forget Him by Bobby Rydell (#44); That Lucky Old Sun by Ray Charles (#47); Whispering by Nino Tempo & April Stevens (#56); Now by Lena Horne (#88); Son of Rebel Rouser by Duane Eddy and the Rebels (#96); Snap Your Fingers by Barbara Lewis (#97); Our Love Affair by Wink Martindale (#98); Don't Send Flowers by Joyce Paul (#99); and I Wanna Be Free by Joe Tex (#100).

On the radio
Sherlock Holmes, starring Fridtjof Hansen Mjoen and Arne Bang-Hansen, on Norsk Rikskringkasting (Norwegian State Broadcasting Corporation)
Tonight's episode: Shoscombe herregard (Shoscombe Old Place)

On television tonight
The Jerry Lewis Show, on ABC

This was the last broadcast of Mr. Lewis's two-hour variety show.

Music
Sam Cooke continued a session at RCA Studio in Los Angeles. Among the songs recorded were Home; Basin Street Blues; The Riddle Song; There'll Be No Second Time; and Keep Movin' On. Recording continued on Good Times.

Space
The U.S.A. launched the weather satellite Tiros 8, whose mission was the photography of Earth's cloud cover.



Technology
Canadian Weather Service received its first automatic picture transmission via satellite.

40 years ago
1973

Hit parade
#1 single in New Zealand: Photograph--Ringo Starr (2nd week at #1)

#1 single in West Germany (Media Control): I'd Love You to Want Me--Lobo (7th week at #1)

Diplomacy
The Arab-Israeli peace conference opened in Geneva. Syria did not attend.

Energy
The United States Senate voted 52-8 in favour of a modified version of President Richard Nixon's emergency energy legislation, minus the provision of a "windfall profits" tax on oil producers. The provision would have required price rollbacks in cases where it could be proven that a seller in any sector of the petroleum industry had made "windfall profits" due to the current energy crisis. The bill faced a filibuster by senators from oil-producing states. The House of Representatives rejected the compromise legislation by a vote of 219-34. House members expressed anger that the Senate had capitulated to pressure from the Federal Energy Office and a small group of senators.

30 years ago
1983

Terrorism
At least 19 people were killed in two bombings in Beirut, apparently aimed at Western peacekeeping forces.

Diplomacy
Canada filed formal claims for $2.1 million in damages from the U.S.S.R. on behalf of Canadian victims of Korean Air Lines Flight 007, which was downed by a Soviet military missile on September 1, 1983 when it strayed into Soviet territory.

Economics and finance
The United States Labor Department reported that the Consumer Price index had edged upward 0.3% in November.

Disasters
More than 300 people were killed when an earthquake struck Guinea.

25 years ago
1988

Hit parade
#1 single in Sweden (Topplistan): Sarah--Mauro Scocco (6th week at #1)

Died on this date
Willie Kamm, 88. U.S. baseball player. Mr. Kamm was a third baseman with the Chicago White Sox (1923-1931) and Cleveland Indians (1931-1935), batting .281 with 29 home runs and 826 runs batted in in 1,693 games. He was regarded as the best defensive third baseman in the American League for most of his career, leading the AL in fielding percentage eight times. After the White Sox traded Mr. Kamm, they had difficulty finding a good third baseman for most of the next 60 years.

Nikolaas Tinbergen, 81. Dutch-born U.K. ethologist and ornithologist. Dr. Tinbergen shared the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Karl von Frisch and Konrad Lorenz "for their discoveries concerning organization and elicitation of individual and social behaviour patterns." Dr. Tinbergen wrote The Study of Instinct (1951), an influential book about animal behaviour. He died of a stroke.

Dave Ruhl, 68. Canadian wrestler. Mr. Ruhl, a native of Watts, Alberta, wrestled professionally from 1946-1974, and was a mainstay on Stampede Wrestling in the 1960s and '70s. He held the Calgary version of the National Wrestling Alliance Canadian heavyweight title eight times from 1959-1972; the title was abandoned after Mr. Ruhl was forced to relinquish it due to injury. Mr. Ruhl was forced to retire in 1974 because of a head injury, and operated a farm with his brother; he died in Medicine Hat, Alberta.

Terrorism
The explosion of a bomb aboard Pan Am Flight 103--a Boeing 747 flying from Frankfurt to New York via London--above Lockerbie, Scotland killed 270 people--all 259 on board, and another 11 on the ground.

Politics and government
The governing groups of Israel's Likud and Labour parties, neither of which had been able to win a majority in the Knesset in the November 1 general election, approved the December 19 agreement on a coalition that would see Likud leader Yitzhak Shamir serve as Prime Minister for four years, with Labour party leader Shimon Peres shifting from Foreign Minister to Finance Minister.

Scandal
The U.S. securities company Drexel Burnham Lambert agreed to plead guilty to six violations of federal law and to penalties totalling $650 million. The settlement, the largest by far in a securities fraud case, included $300 million in fines and the creation of a $350-million account to satisfy claims by parties who could prove that they had been defrauded by DBL. The charges related mostly to dealings between DBL and financier Ivan Boesky, who had been convicted previously, and included insider trading, stock manipulation, and falsifying records. The agreement between the government and DBL also required that the firm settle civil charges previously brought against it. "Junk bond king' Michael Milken, who had helped bring DBL to prominence on Wall Street, was not a party to the settlement, and faced the possibility of a criminal indictment.

Bess Myerson, who had been Miss America for 1945, was acquitted by a New York City jury of bribery, fraud, and conspiracy charges. The prosecution had claimed that she had improperly influenced the judge presiding over the divorce case of her boyfriend, Carl Capasso. Mr. Capasso and the now-retired judge, Hortense Gabel, were also acquitted.

20 years ago
1993

Died on this date
Guy des Cars, 82. French journalist and author. Mr. des Cars began his career as a journalist, but was best known for more than 60 pulp novels in a career spanning more than 50 years from the early 1940s to the early '90s.