January 17, 2014

Born on this date
Happy Birthday, Tatiana Sokolova!

490 years ago
1524

Exploration
Giovanni da Verrazzano set sail westward from Madeira to find a sea route to the Pacific Ocean.

175 years ago
1839

Politics and government
John Colborne, Baron Seaton was appointed Governor of British North America.

100 years ago
1914

Born on this date
Irving Brecher. U.S. screenwriter, producer, and director. Mr. Brecher wrote screenplays for the Marx Brothers movies At the Circus (1939) and Go West (1940), and was nominated for an Academy Award for his screenplay for Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), but was best known for creating, co-producing, and writing the radio and television comedy series The Life of Riley (1944-1951). He died on November 17, 2008 at the age of 94.

80 years ago
1934

Crime
Edward Bremer, 37, was kidnapped in St. Paul, Minnesota.

70 years ago
1944

On the radio
The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce, on MBS
Tonight's episode: The Departed Banker

War
Soviet troops in Poland seized Tuchin, 40 miles northeast of Rovno. Allied forces launched the first of four assaults on Monte Cassino, Italy with the intention of breaking through the Winter Line and seizing Rome, an effort that would ultimately take four months and cost 105,000 Allied casualties. U.S. Navy planes attacked installations on Kusaie Island, the easternmost of Japan's Caroline Islands, including the base on Truk.

Diplomacy
Colombia became the 34th nation to adhere to the United Nations agreement.

Politics and government
Joseph Savage was elected national chairman of the MacArthur Clubs in order to seek the 1944 Republican Party U.S. presidential nomination for U.S. Army General Douglas MacArthur.

Crime
U.S. Attorney General Francis Biddle announced that gangster Louis (Lepke) Buchalter would be surrendered to New York State, where he was scheduled to be executed for murder.

Golf
Byron Nelson won the San Francisco Open with a 13-under-par total score of 275.

50 years ago
1964

Hit parade
#1 single in Ireland (IRMA): There's Always Me--Dickie Rock (3rd week at #1)

Edmonton's top 10 (CJCA)
1 Daisy Petal Pickin'--Jimmy Gilmer and the Fireballs
2 Move Over--Bobby Curtola
3 Judy Loves Me--Johnny Crawford
4 Roll Over Beethoven--The Beatles
5 Shindig--The Shadows
6 Forget Him--Bobby Rydell
7 Surfin' Bird--The Trashmen
8 Johnny Liar--Molly Bee
9 Sugar and Spice--The Searchers
10 Puppy Love--Barbara Lewis
Pick hit of the week: I Want to Hold Your Hand--The Beatles
New this week: Good News--Sam Cooke
Easy Come--Easy Go--Bill Anderson
Navy Blue--Diane Renay
Comin' On--Bill Black's Combo
My Home Town--Steve Lawrence
Don't Talk to Him--Cliff Richard and the Shadows

On television tonight
Twilight Zone, hosted by Rod Serling, on CBS
Tonight's episode: The Self-Improvement of Salvadore Ross, starring Don Gordon, Gail Kobe, and Vaughn Taylor

Transportation
Winnipeg International Airport opened.

40 years ago
1974

Hit parade
#1 single in Ireland (IRMA): I'm Gonna Make It--Joe Cuddy (2nd week at #1)

Died on this date
Phillip Evans, 18. Canadian hockey player. Mr. Evans, a forward with the Goderich (Ontario) Juveniles of the Central Huron League, died after being struck in the chest by a puck in a game against Holmesville.

Diplomacy
Egypt and Israel announced simultaneously in Jerusalem, Cairo, and Washington that they had agreed to separate their military forces along the Suez Canal. U.S. officials disclosed that another agreement, the "United States proposal," had been reached. The details of the second agreement which defined the limitation of troops and arms in the area was kept secret. The troop separation agreement called for Israeli forces to abandon their bridgehead on the western bank of the Suez Canal and to withdraw forces to a 5-7 1/2-mile zone 14-20 miles east of the canal and west of Gidi and Mitla Passes. The accord called for Egyptian forces to remain on the east bank in a 5-7 1/2-mile zone. The United Nations Emergency Force would patrol a buffer zone 3 1/2-5 miles wide between the Egyptian and Israeli forces. The disengagement was to be completed within 40 days. The agreement was reached chiefly through the mediation of U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who had spent the previous six days shuttling between Jerusalem and Aswan. In Washington, U.S. President Richard Nixon said, "We in the United States can be proud of the role that has been played by Secretary Kissinger and his colleagues in working to bring the parties together." The agreement, which was signed the following day by Egyptian and Israeli chiefs of staff on the Cairo-Suez road, came three months after the Yom Kippur War, when Egyptian and Syrian forces had attacked Israel on October 6, 1973, only to be strongly rebuffed before the end of hostilities on October 22.

Politics and government
Pauline McGibbon took office as Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario, the first woman to hold a vice-regal post in Canada.

Hockey
WHA
Gordie Howe of the Houston Aeros scored his 14th goal of the season, giving him a combined total of 800 with the Aeros and Detroit Red Wings of the NHL, for whom he played from 1946-1971.

30 years ago
1984

Hit parade
#1 single in Sweden (Topplistan): Say, Say, Say--Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson (2nd week at #1)

Diplomacy
The 35-nation Conference on Confidence- and Security-Building Measures and Disarmament in Europe opened in Stockholm. The first objective of the conference was to find ways to reduce the risk of war in Europe.

Society
The U.S. Civil Rights Commission voted 6-2 to adopt a statement on the use of racial quotas to promote Negroes, asserting that "such racial preferences merely constitute another form of unjustified discrimination, create a new class of victims and, when used in public employment, offend the constitutional principle of equal protection of the law for all citizens."

25 years ago
1989

Crime
Patrick Edward Purdy, a former student at Cleveland Elementary School in Stockton, California who was now in his mid-20s, returned to the school armed with a semiautomatic rifle and two pistols. He opened fire at the school grounds, killing 5 students and wounding 29 others and a teacher before shooting himself to death with a pistol. The dead children were all refugees from Cambodia and Vietnam.

Scandal
An internal report issued by the U.S. Justice Department criticized Edwin Meese, who had led the department as Attorney General from 1985-1988. The report, prepared by the Office of Professional Responsibility, found that ethical breaches by Mr. Meese would have called for disciplinary action by the president if Mr. Meese were still in office. The report asserted that Mr. Meese had violated departmental standards of conduct and an executive order on ethics. It cited assistance to friend and sometime creditor E. Robert Wallach; a delay in paying income taxes; and his ownership of telecommunications stock while dealing with matters in the department related to telephone companies. Mr. Meese's lawyers said there was "no basis" for criticizing his conduct.

Disasters
At least 51 people, including 35 schoolgirls, were killed when a train struck a bus in southern Sri Lanka.

20 years ago
1994

Hit parade
#1 single in Germany (Media Control): I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That--Meat Loaf (9th week at #1)

Canada's top 10 (RPM)
1 All for Love--Bryan Adams, Rod Stewart and Sting
2 Please Forgive Me--Bryan Adams
3 Said I Loved You...But I Lied--Michael Bolton
4 The Power of Love--Celine Dion
5 5 Days in May--Blue Rodeo
6 Hero--Mariah Carey
7 I'll Always Be There--Roch Voisine
8 Mary Jane's Last Dance--Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
9 All About Soul--Billy Joel
10 Amazing--Aerosmith

Singles entering the chart were Streets of Philadelphia by Bruce Springsteen (#46); Mr. Jones by Counting Crows (#58); Choose by Color Me Badd (#59); Having a Party by Rod Stewart with Ronnie Wood (#68); Rock and Roll Dreams Come Through by Meat Loaf (#71); Missing You by Richard Samuels (#72); And the Song Goes (Doo Dit) by Carol Medina (#74); The Sign by Ace of Base (#82); Pincushion by ZZ Top (#84); and Life (Everybody Needs Somebody to Love) by Haddaway (#85). Streets of Philadelphia was from the movie Philadelphia (1993).

Died on this date
Helen Stephens, 75. U.S. athlete. Miss Stephens participated in several track and field sports as well as baseball and basketball, but was best known as a sprinter, winning gold medals in the women's 100-metres competition and as the anchor in the women's 4 x 100-metres relay event.

Yevgeni Ivanov, 68. U.S.S.R. spy. Mr. Ivanov was a naval attaché at the Soviet Embassy in London during the early 1960s; he had an affair with British call girl Christine Keeler, who was also having an affair with U.K. Secretary of State for War John Profumo. Mr. Ivanov was recalled to Moscow in December 1962, three months before the scandal became public. He was found dead in his flat in Moscow, six days after his 68th birthday.

Politics and government
Russian President Boris Yeltsin reaffirmed his commitment to reform.

Gilbert Parent elected Speaker of the Canadian House of Commons.

Economics and finance
In Beijing, the United States and China reached an agreement on textiles under which the 1994 quota of imports into the U.S. from China would be frozen at the 1993 level and and would increase by only 1% in each of the following two years.

Disasters
60 people were killed and 7,707 injured when an earthquake measuring 6.6 on the Richter scale struck Los Angeles.

10 years ago
2004

Died on this date
Harry Brecheen, 89. U.S. baseball pitcher. Mr. Brecheen, nicknamed "The Cat," played with the St. Louis Cardinals (1940, 1943-1952) and St. Louis Browns (1953), posting a record of 133-92 in 318 games, with an earned run average of 2.92. His best season was 1948, when he was 20-7 and led the National League in winning percentage (.741), strikeouts (149), shutouts (70, and earned run average (2.24). Mr. Brecheen pitched in the World Series of 1943, 1944, and 1946; he won 3 games in the 1946 World Series, pitching a shutout in game 2, a complete game in game 6, and 2 innings of relief in game 7. When the Browns moved to Baltimore after the 1953 season and became the Orioles, Mr. Brecheen remained with the team as their pitching coach, serving through 1967 and helping to develop young pitchers such as Chuck Estrada, Steve Barber, Dave McNally, and Jim Palmer.

Ray Stark, 88. U.S. film producer. Mr. Stark was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture for Funny Girl (1968) and The Goodbye Girl (1977).