February 28, 2014

230 years ago
1784

Religion
John Wesley signed the Deed of Declaration, formalizing the establishment of the Wesleyan faith, better known as Methodism.

225 years ago
1789

Theatre
New Brunswick's first dramatic performances were staged in Saint John, as The Busy Body and Who's The Dupe were presented in the Long Room of the Mallard House on King Street.

170 years ago
1844

Died on this date
Abel Upshur, 53; Thomas Gilmer, 41. U.S. politicians. Mr. Upshur, Secretary of State since July 24, 1843, and Mr. Gilmer, Secretary of the Navy for only nine days, were among eight people killed and 20 injured aboard the U.S. Navy warship USS Princeton when a gun known as the "Peacemaker" exploded when it was fired during a cruise down the Potomac River. President John Tyler was aboard, but was below decks and escaped injury.

160 years ago
1854

Politics and government
About 50 opponents of slavery met in Ripon, Wisconsin to call for creation of a new political group; the resulting organization became the Republican Party.

125 years ago
1889

Technology
Gilbert W. Ganong, of Ganong Bros. Ltd. confectioners in St. Stephen, New Brunswick, patented a process for imprinting the bottom of individual chocolates with a wordmark. Each hand-dipped chocolate bore the initials “GB.”

100 years ago
1914

World events
The Autonomous Republic of Northern Epirus was proclaimed in Gjirokastër by Greeks living in southern Albania.

Baseball
The New York Giants and Chicago White Sox boarded the Lusitania in Liverpool to return to the United States at the conclusion of their four-month post-season exhibition tour of the U.S.A. and the world.

75 years ago
1939

Literature
The erroneous word "dord" was discovered in Webster's New International Dictionary, Second Edition, prompting an investigation, and the eventual removal of the "ghost word" in 1947.

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 Missing Button

War
In two weeks of fighting in the jungles of western Burma around Arakan, the Allies had reportedly dispersed 8,000 Japanese troops.

Abominations
A Soviet commission investigating German atrocities during the occupation of Kiev reported that 195,000 people there had been "tortured to death, shot or poisoned in murder vans."

Labour
United Mine Workers President John L. Lewis said that the Congress of Industrial Organizations was dominated by Communists and that its leaders were "prisoners of the Communists and can't do a thing about it."

Journalism
University of Chicago President Robert Hutchins announced the organization of a commission to make a two-year study of "the nature, duties, and responsibilities of the press in America."

60 years ago
1954

Hit parade
#1 single in West Germany (Media Control): Anneliese--Hans-Arno Simon (1st month at #1)

Television
The first color television sets in the United States using the NTSC standard were offered for sale to the general public.

50 years ago
1964

Hit parade
#1 single in Ireland (IRMA): Needles and Pins--The Searchers (3rd week at #1)

Edmonton's Top 10 (CJCA)
1 She Loves You--The Beatles (2nd week at #1)
2 Kissin' Cousins--Elvis Presley
3 Please Please Me--The Beatles
4 I Want to Hold Your Hand--The Beatles
5 Roll Over Beethoven--The Beatles
6 Navy Blue--Diane Renay
7 Don't Talk to Him--Cliff Richard and the Shadows
8 Young and in Love--Chris Crosby
9 Puppy Love--Barbara Lewis
10 Little Girl Blue--Bobby Curtola

Pick hit of the week: My Boyfriend Got a Beatle Haircut--Donna Lynn
New this week: Johnny Zero--Merle Kilgore
I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now--Bobby Darin
Oh Boy--Jackie DeShannon
I Am Woman--Barbra Streisand
Little Betty--The Cascades
The Waiting Game--Brenda Lee

The Waiting Game was the B-side of Think, which charted in the United States, but not in Edmonton.

On television tonight
Twilight Zone, hosted by Rod Serling, on CBS
Tonight's episode: An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, starring Roger Jacquet, Anne Cornaly, and Anker Larsen

This was a film that had been released in theatres in France in 1962 and in the United States in 1963. For broadcast on Twilight Zone, several minutes were cut from the film in order to permit time for commercial breaks and introductory and closing remarks by Mr. Serling.

Music
The single A World Without Love/If I Were You by Peter and Gordon was released in the United Kingdom on Columbia Records.

Transportation
The Toronto International Airport terminal building opened.

Boxing
Rubin "Hurricane" Carter (19-4) won a 10-round unanimous decision over Jimmy Ellis (14-3) in a middleweight bout at Madison Square Garden in New York.



40 years ago
1974

Hit parade
#1 single in Ireland (IRMA): Devil Gate Drive--Suzi Quatro

Died on this date
Bobby Bloom, 28. U.S. singer. Mr. Bloom was known for his hit single Montego Bay (1970). Mr. Bloom apparently shot himself while cleaning his gun.

Politics and government
The Labour Party, led by former Prime Minister Harold Wilson, won a narrow plurality in the U.K. general election, but wasn't immediately able to form a majority needed to unseat the Conservative government of Prime Minister Edward Heath. Labour captured 301 of 635 seats in the House of Commons, the Conservatives won 297, and the Liberals, led by Jeremy Thorpe, 14. Going into the election, the Conservatives held 334 seats, Labour 281, and Liberals 6. Unionist parties in Northern Ireland, the Scottish National Party, and Plaid Cymru in Wales all achieved success.

Spread of a military mutiny in Asmara, Ethiopia's second-largest city, forced the resignation of the cabinet of Emperor Haile Selassie.

Diplomacy
The United States and Egypt re-established diplomatic relations after a seven-year break following the Six-Day War in 1967. The decision followed a meeting between Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.

Hockey
WHL
The Western Hockey League suspended Connie Forey of the Denver Spurs for the rest of the 1973-74 season and all of the 1974-75 season for an attack on referee Malcolm Ashford during a game on February 21 in Seattle against the Totems. Mr. Forey was also ordered to pay $10,000 to Mr. Ashford, whose nose he had broken in the attack.

30 years ago
1984

Hit parade
#1 single in Sweden (Topplistan): My Oh My--Slade (6th week at #1)

War
Iran denied Iraq's claim of the previous day that it had launched air attacks on oil tankers at Kharg Island, Iran's principal oil export terminal. Iran denied that the terminal or any tankers had been hit.

Politics and government
Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau went for a walk in an Ottawa blizzard and decided to resign. He made the announcement the next day.

United States Senator Gary Hart (Colorado) won the New Hampshire primary for the Democratic Party nomination for President of the United States in the November 1984 election. A New York Times/CBS poll made public that day showed former Vice President Walter Mondale as the national choice for the nomination by a wide margin, but Sen. Hart captured 37% of the vote in New Hampshire to 28% for Mr. Mondale and 12% for U.S. Senator John Glenn (Ohio). In the Republican primary, President Ronald Reagan drew 86% of the vote.

Economics and finance
United States governors, at their convention, voted 28-10 in favour of higher taxes and reduced defense outlays as a means of reducing U.S. budget deficits.

25 years ago
1989

On television tonight
The Wonder Years, on ABC
Tonight's episode: Loosiers

Politics and government
Venezuelan President Carlos Andres Perez declared martial law, amid nationwide riots over government-imposed increases in transportation fares and gasoline prices.

20 years ago
1994

Hit parade
#1 single in Germany (Media Control): All for Love--Bryan Adams, Rod Stewart and Sting (3rd week at #1)

Canada's Top 10 (RPM)
1 The Power of Love--Celine Dion (2nd week at #1)
2 Streets of Philadelphia--Bruce Springsteen
3 All for Love--Bryan Adams, Rod Stewart, and Sting
4 Distant Sun--Crowded House
5 Mr. Jones--Counting Crows
6 The Sign--Ace of Base
7 Rock and Roll Dreams Come Through--Meat Loaf
8 Now and Forever--Richard Marx
9 Linger--The Cranberries
10 Will You Be There (In the Morning)--Heart

Singles entering the chart were Anniversary Song by Cowboy Junkies (#70); For Whom the Bell Tolls by the Bee Gees (#73); Oh No, Not My Baby by Linda Ronstadt (#81); Lost Without You by Roch Voisine (#88); and Deuces are Wild by Aerosmith (#93).

War
For the first time in its 45-year history, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization was involved in actual combat. Six Bosnian Serb aircraft violated the United Nations-imposed no-fly zone in central Bosnia, and some or all dropped bombs on a town containing a munitions factory, but succeeded only in hitting a hospital and storage depot. After the Serb planes ignored radio warnings, four of them were shot down by U.S. fighter planes operating under NATO auspices.

Politics and government
Moldova's main independence party claimed a clear victory in the country's first post-Soviet parliamentary elections.

World events
Three days after Dr. Baruch Goldstein, an Israeli settler in the West Bank, had opened fire on Muslim worshippers in a mosque in Hebron and killed several dozen people, the Palestine Liberation Organization said that Israel must disarm all her settlers in the area and keep them out of the areas of Palestinian concentration.

10 years ago
2004

Died on this date
Carmen Laforet, 82. Spanish authoress. Miss Laforet was an existentialist who wrote five novels, the best-known of which was her first, Nada (1945). She died after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease.