February 13, 2014

325 years ago
1689

Politics and government
The English Convention Parliament named William III and Mary II co-sovereigns of England, Scotland, and Ireland.

275 years ago
1739

War
The army of Iranian ruler Nadir Shah defeated the forces of the Mughal emperor of India, Muhammad Shah in the Battle of Karnal.

100 years ago
1914

Music
The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) was established in New York City to protect the copyrighted musical compositions of its members.

Baseball
The New York Giants and Chicago White Sox were in Rome to continue their post-season exhibition tour, but their game was rained out for the third straight day.

80 years ago
1934

Disasters
The Soviet steamship SS Chelyuskin sank near Kolyuchin Island in the Chukchi Sea after being crushed by icepacks. The 111-man crew managed to escape onto the ice, and were rescued two months later.

75 years ago
1939

Music
In Martinez, California, Mario Olmeda recorded six Italian folk songs for folk music collector Sidney Robertson Cowell.

70 years ago
1944

War
German troops in Cassino, Italy were reported using the 6th-century Abbey of Mount Cassino as a fortress, and the Allies claimed that it might be necessary to demolish it. In a new drive on the northern front, Soviet troops took the rail centre of Luga.

Politics and government
Teodoro Picado Michalski, candidate of the National Republican Party and the Victory Bloc alliance, won the Costa Rican presidential election, taking 75.1% of the vote to 24.9% for former President León Cortés Castro, candidate of the Democratic Party and National Opposition alliance.

Economics and finance
U.S. Deputy Food Administrator C.W. Kitchen announced that civilian allotments of canned fruit and vegetables would be cut 43% and 19%, respectively, in 1944.

Labour
The American Federation of Labor Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners, representing 600,000 workers, adopted a resolution calling for the end of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal economic program.

Hockey
NHL
Babe Pratt of the Toronto Maple Leafs scored his 45th point of the season, a league record for a defenceman.

60 years ago
1954

Hit Parade
#1 single in Australia (Kent Music Report): Pretend--Nat "King" Cole (7th week at #1)

#1 singles in the U.S.A. (Billboard): Oh, Mein Papa (Oh! My Pa-Pa)--Eddie Fisher (Best Seller--6th week at #1; Disc Jockey--5th week at #1; Jukebox--3rd week at #1)

U.S.A. Top 10 (Cash Box)
1 Oh, Mein Papa (Oh! My Pa-Pa)--Eddie Fisher (6th week at #1)
--Eddie Calvert
2 Stranger in Paradise--Tony Bennett
--The Four Aces
--Tony Martin
3 That's Amore--Dean Martin
4 Changing Partners--Patti Page
--[Kay Starr]
--[Bing Crosby]
5 Secret Love--Doris Day
6 The Gang that Sang "Heart of My Heart"--The Four Aces
-- Don Cornell, Alan Dale, and Johnny Desmond
7 Woman (Uh-Huh)--Jose Ferrer
--Johnny Desmond
8 From the Vine Came the Grape--The Gaylords
--The Hilltoppers
9 Rags to Riches--Tony Bennett
10 Ricochet (Rick-O-Shay)--Teresa Brewer

Singles entering the chart were I Get So Lonely (When I Dream About You) by the Four Knights (#20); Y'All Come by Bing Crosby (#28); Cuddle Me by Ronnie Gaylord (#34); My Restless Lover by Patti Page (#35); Gee by the Crows (#42); My Baby Rocks Me by Rosemary Clooney (#44); Romeo and Juliet by Deacon Andy Griffith (#45); and I Couldn't Believe My Eyes by Julius LaRosa (#50). Bing Crosby's version of Changing Partners was the B-side of Y'All Come.

Died on this date
Agnes Macphail, 63. Canadian politician. Miss Macphail, as a member of te Progressive Party, became the first woman to be elected to the Canadian House of Commons, where she sat as the MP for the Ontario riding of Grey Southeast from 1921-1940. She was a member of the Ginger Group that split from the Progressive Party and formed the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation. In 1935 Miss Macphail ran as a candidate for the United Farmers of Ontario-Labour Party in the new riding of Grey-Bruce and was re-elected to the House of Commons. She was defeated in the federal election of 1940 and in a subsequent by-election. Miss Macphail then entered provincial politics, running for the CCF in the 1943 Ontario provincial election. She and fellow CCF candidate Rae Luckock were both elected, and became the first female Members of the Provincial Parliament in Ontario. Miss Macphail was defeated in 1945, re-elected in 1948, and defeated in 1951.

Basketball
NCAA
Frank Selvy of the Furman University Paladins became the only NCAA Division I basketball player ever to score 100 points in a single game, making 41 of 66 field goal attempts and 18 of 22 free throws in a game in Greenville, South Carolina against Newberry College. Furman won the game 149-95.

50 years ago
1964

Hit parade
#1 single in New Zealand: I Saw Her Standing There--The Beatles; Glad All Over--The Dave Clark Five

#1 single in the U.K. (Record Retailer): Needles and Pins--The Searchers (3rd week at #1)

Died on this date
Ken Hubbs, 22. U.S. baseball player. Mr. Hubbs joined the Chicago Cubs late in the 1961 season and was their regular second baseman through 1963, batting .247 with 14 home runs and 98 runs batted in in 324 games. In 1962 he played in 160 of the Cubs' 162 games and batted .260 with 5 homers and 49 RBIs. Mr. Hubbs was better known for his fielding; in 1962 he set records by playing 78 consecutive errorless games and handling 148 consecutive errorless chances. He was named the National League Rookie of the Year and became the first rookie to win a Gold Glove award. Mr. Hubbs was killed while piloting a small plane in a snowstorm near Provo, Utah.

40 years ago
1974

Hit parade
#1 single in Switzerland: I'd Love You to Want Me--Lobo (13th week at #1)

World events
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, winner of the 1970 Nobel Prize in Literature in 1970, was accused of "performing systematically actions that are incompatible with being a citizen," was stripped of his Soviet citizenship, and deported to West Germany. He and his wife had been arrested the previous day. Soviet authorities had begun a campaign against Mr. Solzhenitsyn after his novel The Gulag Archipelago, an expose of the Soviet prison system, had been published in Paris on December 28, 1973.

Oil
Representatives of 14 major oil-consuming nations met in Washington and adopted a U.S. proposal for international cooperation to combat the world energy crisis. France objected strongly to 4 of the proposal's 17 points: a comprehensive action program to deal with all facets of the energy situation; formation of a coordinating group of senior officials to develop an action program; establishment of a coordinating group to prepare for a conference of oil-producing and oil-consuming nations as soon as possible; and adoption of financial and monetary measures to avoid "competitive depreciation and the escalation of restrictions on trade and payment or disruptions in external borrowing." French Foreign Minister Michel Jobert protested that the conference had been ill-conceived and ill-planned and that the U.S. had used energy matters as a "pretext" to strengthen its influence in Europe. U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger expressed hope that France would continue to participate in the follow-up meeting of oil consumers and producers.

Labour
British coal miners, who had been on strike since February 10, announced a total ban on replenishing diminishing coal stocks at power plants, and other unions offered support by refusing to transport coal.

30 years ago
1984

Hit parade
#1 single in Australia (Kent Music Report): Love Is a Battlefield--Pat Benatar

#1 single in Spain (PROMUSICAE): Thriller--Michael Jackson

Died on this date
Andre Stander, 37 (?). South African criminal. Mr. Stander was a police captain in South Africa who turned to crime in the 1970s and began robbing banks as leader of the "Stander Gang." He and fellow criminal Lee McCall escaped from custody in August 1983, and Mr. Stander made his way to Fort Lauderdale, Florida to arrange for the sale of the gang's newly-purchased yacht. He was shot by police there while attempting to flee his apartment complex.

Politics and government
At a meeting of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Soviet Premier Nikolai Tikhonov nominated Konstantin Chernenko to succeed Yuri Andropov as General Secretary of the Communist Party. Mr. Tikhonov said that Mr. Chernenko had been the unanimous choice of the Politburo. Mr. Chernenko had been a close ally of Leonid Brezhnev for many years, serving as chief of staff for the Supreme Soviet and head of administration and security for the Central Committee. He was believed to be Mr. Brezhnev's choice as a successor, but had been passed over in favour of Mr. Andropov, who had died on February 9. At 72, Mr. Chernenko was the oldest man to assume leadership of the U.S.S.R. In accepting the nomination, he seemed conciliatory toward the West, but warned that no one would be permitted to upset the "military equilibrium that had been achieved."

War
Iran announced that two days earlier it had launched a major offensive into southeastern Iraq. Iraq denied any invasion.

Diplomacy
U.S. President Ronald Reagan began two days of talks in Washington with King Hussein of Jordan and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

Olympics
Canada defeated Norway 8-1 in men's hockey at the Winter Olympic Games in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia.

25 years ago
1989

Hit parade
#1 single in Australia (Australian Music Report): Teardrops--Womack & Womack

#1 single in Spain (PROMUSICAE): Kiss--The Art of Noise featuring Tom Jones

Died on this date
Wayne Hays, 77. U.S. politician. Mr. Hays, a Democrat, represented Ohio's 18th District in the United States House of Representatives from 1949-1976. He served as chairman of the House Committee on Administration, but his career ended when it was revealed Elizabeth Ray, who had been Mr. Hays' secretary and had also been put on staff with the House Committee on Administration, had merely been his mistress, and possessed no secretarial skills.

Protest
Police in India killed three people who were protesting Salman Rushdie's recently-published novel The Satanic Verses, which was accused of being disrespectful toward the prophet Muhammad.

20 years ago
1994

Hit parade
#1 single in New Zealand: I Can See Clearly Now--Jimmy Cliff (5th week at #1)

#1 single in Austria (Ö3): All for Love--Bryan Adams, Rod Stewart and Sting

#1 single in Switzerland: All for Love--Bryan Adams, Rod Stewart and Sting (2nd week at #1)

#1 single in the U.K. (Chart Information Network): Without You--Mariah Carey

Olympics
Tommy Moe of the United States won the gold medal in the men's downhill ski event at the Winter Olympic Games in Lillehammer, Norway.

10 years ago
2004

Died on this date
Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev, 51. 2nd President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, 1996-1997. Mr. Yandarbiyev succeeded the assassinated Dzhokhar Dudayev as acting President of the breakaway Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. He served from April 21, 1996 – February 12, 1997, and led a delegation to Moscow that signed a cease-fire agreement with Russian leaders on May 27, 1996. In the presidential election in February 1997, Mr. Yandarbiyev finished third, with 10% of the vote. He moved to Qatar in 1999, sought to obtain Muslim support for the Muslim cause, and was increasingly regarded as a terrorist. Mr. Yandarbiyev was assassinated by a car bomb in the Qatari capital of Doha; two Russians were convicted of murder and were extradited to Russia six months after being sentenced to life imprisonment.

Space
The Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics announced the discovery of the universe's largest known diamond, white dwarf star BPM 37093. Astronomers named this star "Lucy" after The Beatles' song Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.