March 10, 2014

210 years ago
1804

Americana
A formal ceremony was conducted in St. Louis to transfer ownership of the Louisiana Territory from France to the United States.

200 years ago
1814

War
Prussian forces commanded by Generalfeldmarschall Gebhard von Blucher defeated French forces led by Emperor Napoleon I in the Battle of Laon in France.

175 years ago
1839

Born on this date
Dudley Buck. U.S. musician and composer. Mr. Buck was an organist whose best-known composition was Concert Variations on the Star-Spangled Banner, later orchestrated as Festival Overture on the American National Air, the Star-Spangled Banner (1887). He died on October 6, 1909 at the age of 70.

150 years ago
1864

War
U.S. President Abraham Lincoln put Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant in charge of all the Union armies in the U.S. Civil War.

100 years ago
1914

Protest
In Paris, Mary Richardson slashed the French National Gallery's painting The Rokeby Venus by Velazquez, in a protest against the jailing and force-feeding of suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst.

Baseball
Three days after arriving in New York at the end of their 4 1/2-month post-season tour of the western United States and a number of foreign countries with the New York Giants, the Chicago White Sox concluded the celebrations with a banquet at the Congress Hotel. All those in attendance received a copy of a The Home Coming by Ed Heeman and Ring Lardner, a book commemorating the tour. The Giants and White Sox had attended a banquet upon their arrival in New York, and the Giants had then departed for spring training in Marlin, Texas.

80 years ago
1934

Literature
The March 10, 1934 edition of Collier's included Medium Well Done, the first of the Mr. Wong stories by Hugh Wiley.

70 years ago
1944

War
The U.S.S.R. reported a new breakthrough by Soviet troops in Ukraine after five days of fighting that had resulted in the defeat of 14 German divisions along a 110-mile front southwest of Cherkassy. U.S. and Chinese forces advanced 3-4 miles in northern Burma against heavy Japanese resistance. U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt backed the previous day's statement by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill that Italian ships were unsuitable for Russia's northern waters, and said that U.S. and U.K. warships would be transferred to the Soviets.

Politics and government
The Political Committee of National Liberation (PEEA), a government dominated by the Communist Party, was established in Greece by the National Liberation Front (EAM)/Greek People's Liberation Army (ELAS) movement in opposition to both the collaborationist German-controlled government at Athens and to the royal government-in-exile in Cairo. Evripidis Bakirtzis, the former leader of National and Social Liberation (EKKA), was named President.

General Pedro Ramirez officially resigned as President of Argentina, and acting President Edelmiro Farrell assumed the full powers of the presidency.

U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt approved the recommendations of the Army and navy permitting political nominations of officers of the armed services provided they came without solicitation or direct effort.

The state legislatures of Maryland and Virginia adopted bills authorizing absentee voting by members of the U.S. armed services.

Economics and finance
The U.S. War Production Board announced that imports of alcoholic beverages derived from cane sugar in Cuba and other Latin American countries would be put on a strict quota basis retroactive to March 5 to prevent further excessive diversion from wartime needs.

50 years ago
1964

On television tonight
The Fugitive, on ABC
Tonight's episode: Flight from the Final Demon, with guest stars Ed Nelson, Carroll O'Connor, Ellen Madison, and Don Dubbins

40 years ago
1974

Politics and government
The Israeli Knesset voted 62-46 to support the new coalition cabinet that had been formed by Prime Minister Golda Meir four days earlier.

Labour
The strike by workers in Ethiopia against the government of Emperor Haile Selassie that had begun on March 7 was called off when the unions, whose 16 demands included pension plans, a social security system, and a minimum wage of $1.50 per day, won concessions, including a compromise that a new minimum wage would be fixed after a two-month "cooling off" period.

Scandal
In a 1,404-page report, the Pennsylvania Crime Commission charged that police corruption in Philadelphia was "ongoing, widespread, systematic and occurring at all levels of the police department." The report also accused the office of Philadelphia Mayor Frank Rizzo and the police department of attempting to block the 18-month investigation.

Oddities
Lieutenant Hiroo Onoda, 52, a Japanese soldier missing in the Philippines since the end of World War II, was found alive, unaware that the war had been over since 1945. In an informal surrender, he presented his sword to Major General Jose Rancudo, commander of the Philippine Air Force. Lt. Onoda said that he had not emerged before because his last order had been to continue guerrilla warfare.

Auto racing
Bobby Unser held off his younger brother Al by 0.58 seconds to win the California 500 at Ontario in the closest 500-mile race the United States Auto Club had ever held.

30 years ago
1984

Hit parade
#1 single in Italy (FIMI): La Donna Cannone--Francesco De Gregori (10th week at #1)

#1 single in Flanders (VRT Top 30): Radio Ga Ga--Queen

#1 single in the Netherlands (De Nederlandse Top 40): When the Lady Smiles--Golden Earring (2nd week at #1)

#1 single in Ireland (IRMA): 99 Red Balloons--Nena (2nd week at #1)

#1 single in the U.K.: 99 Red Balloons--Nena (2nd week at #1)

#1 single in the U.S.A. (Billboard): Jump--Van Halen (3rd week at #1)

U.S.A. top 10 (Cash Box)
1 99 Luftballons--Nena
2 Girls Just Want to Have Fun--Cyndi Lauper
3 Jump--Van Halen
4 Thriller--Michael Jackson
5 Somebody's Watching Me--Rockwell
6 Nobody Told Me--John Lennon
7 Karma Chameleon--Culture Club
8 Let the Music Play--Shannon
9 I Want a New Drug--Huey Lewis and the News
10 Here Comes the Rain Again--Eurythmics

Singles entering the chart were Love Somebody by Rick Springfield (#50); Eat It by "Weird Al" Yankovic (#60); You Might Think by the Cars (#67); Hyperactive by Thomas Dolby (#84); Borderline by Madonna (#85); Club Michelle by Eddie Money (#86); Dancing in the Sheets by Shalamar (#89); and Do You Love Me by Andy Fraser (#90). Eat It was a spoof of Michael Jackson's 1983 hit Beat It.

Canada's top 10 (RPM)
1 99 Red Balloons--Nena (2nd week at #1)
2 Jump--Van Halen
3 Thriller--Michael Jackson
4 Red Red Wine--UB40
5 Karma Chameleon--Culture Club
6 Girls Just Want to Have Fun--Cyndi Lauper
7 Talking in Your Sleep--The Romantics
8 Break My Stride--Matthew Wilder
9 Think of Laura--Christopher Cross
10 Here Comes the Rain Again--Eurythmics

Singles entering the chart were Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now) by Phil Collins (#46); Livin' in Desperate Times by Olivia Newton-John (#49); and Scratching the Surface by Saga (#50).

Hockey
NHL
New York Rangers 3 Edmonton 2

25 years ago
1989

Hit parade
#1 single in West Germany (Media Control): Something's Gotten Hold of My Heart--Marc Almond featuring Gene Pitney (2nd week at #1)

At the movies
New York Stories, an anthology directed by Martin Scorcese, Francis Ford Coppola, and Woody Allen, and starring Nick Nolte, Rosanna Arquette, Heather McComb, Talia Shire, Mr. Allen, and Mae Questel, opened in theatres.

Chances Are, directed by Emile Ardonlino, and starring Cybill Shepherd, Robert Downey, Jr., Ryan O'Neal, and Mary Stuart Masterson, opened in theatres.

Politics and government
The day after the United States Senate had rejected former Senator John Tower as President George Bush's nominee as Secretary of Defense, Mr. Bush nominated Representative Dick Cheney (Republican--Wyoming), a former chief of staff for President Gerald Ford, as Secretary of Defense.

Economics and finance
The United States Labor Department reported that the unemployment rate was 5.1% in February, a decline of 0.3% from January, and a level not seen since May 1974.

Disasters
An Air Ontario jet crashed after take off from Dryden, Ontario, killing 24 people and injuring 45. An inquiry later blamed wing icing for the crash.

20 years ago
1994

Hit parade
#1 single in Finland (Musiikkituottajat – IFPI Finland): Look Who's Talking--Dr. Alban (2nd week at #1)

Politics and government
The government of Lucas Mangope, President of the South African "homeland" of Bophuthatswana, collapsed, four days after he had announced his homeland's refusal to participate in South Africa's first universal-suffrage election in April.

Health
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control reported that the number of new AIDS cases in 1993 had more than doubled to 103,500, from 49,016 in 1992. A broadened definition of the disease accounted for most of the increase. Although heterosexual transmission accounted for only 9,288 new cases (less than 9%), this was a 130% increase from 1992. Cases continued to increase more rapidly among women than among men, and Negroes and Hispanics continued to be disproportionately represented in the totals.

10 years ago
2004

Politics and government
Gerard Latortue, a lawyer and economist, was appointed interim Prime Minister of Haiti, replacing the recently-departed Yvon Neptune.

Crime
The day after John Allen Muhammad had been sentenced to death for the October 2002 sniper killings of 10 people in the Washington, D.C. area, his partner in crime, Lee Malvo, who was 17 at the time of the spree, was sentenced by a judge in Chesapeake, Virginia to life in prison without possibility of parole.

The French newspaper Le Monde reported that a French police investigation blamed current Rwandan President Paul Kagame for shooting down a predecessor's plane in 1994--an assassination that was used as a pretext for the genocide that followed. Mr. Kagame, the rebel leader who had ended the genocide, had alwyas denied the charge.

Scandal
The Canadian Department of National Defence reported a $160-million accounting fraud involving the computer company Hewlett-Packard. HP denied having anything to do with the decade-long scam.

Economics and finance
The United States Commerce Department reported that the trade deficit reached $43.1 billion in January, the highest monthly shortfall ever.