March 6, 2014

180 years ago
1834

Torontonia
York, Upper Canada (population 10,000) was incorporated as the City of Toronto.

Transportation
The London and Gore (later Great Western) Railroad between Hamilton and London became the first railway to be incorporated in Upper Canada.

125 years ago
1889

Literature
French author Emile Zola's novels were seized and destroyed by Canadian customs officers in Toronto after they were ruled to be obscene.

110 years ago
1904

Born on this date
José Antonio Aguirre y Lecube. Spanish politician. Mr. Aguirre was a Basque nationalist who became the 1st President of the provisional government of the Basque Country on October 7, 1936, six days after the beginning of the Spanish Civil War. The Basque Country fought for the Second Spanish Republic during the Civil War, but Mr. Aguirre was forced to flee the country under a false identity after the Nationalists won the war, and was pursued by agents of Spanish dictator Francisco Franco. Mr. Aguirre was received in Uruguay, resumed his true identity, and then went to New York, where he lectured at Columbia University. After the U.S.A. and Spain signed the Pact of Madrid in 1953, Mr. Aguirre went to France, serving as President of the Basque government-in-exile. He died in Paris of a heart attack on March 22, 1960, 16 days after his 56th birthday.

100 years ago
1914

Baseball
Six days after departing Liverpool, the New York Giants and Chicago White Sox arrived in New York aboard the Lusitania, concluding their post-season exhibition tour that had begun in mid-October 1913. The teams had no sooner arrived than the players from both teams were besieged with offers from representatives of teams in the Federal League, a new rival to the National and American Leagues. Several of the players paid visits to the Federal League offices at the Knickerbocker Hotel in New York.

70 years ago
1944

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

War
850 U.S. Flying Fortresses and Liberators dropped more than 2,000 tons of bombs in the second day of attacks on Berlin. Soviet forces captured more than 200 inhabited places and cut the vital Odessa-Lvov rail line in Ukraine. U.S. Marines landed on the west coast of the Willaumez Peninsula of New Britain Island.

Scandal
Willard H. Dow told the United States Senate's Truman Committee that government charges linking Dow Chemical Company with a German cartel were wrong.

Society
U.S. Fair Employment Practices Commission Chairman Malcolm Ross said that the Chicago & Northwestern Railway would upgrade the status of Negro employees, promoting car cleaners to helpers, and dining car waiters to stewards, as recommended by the FEPC.

60 years ago
1954

Hit Parade
#1 single in Australia (Kent Music Report): Rags to Riches--Tony Bennett (2nd week at #1)

#1 singles in the U.S.A. (Billboard): Secret Love--Doris Day (Best Seller--2nd week at #1; Disc Jockey--1st week at #1); Oh, Mein Papa (Oh! My Pa-Pa)--Eddie Fisher (Jukebox--6th week at #1)

U.S.A. Top 10 (Cash Box)
1 Secret Love--Doris Day
2 Oh, Mein Papa (Oh! My Pa-Pa)--Eddie Fisher
--Eddie Calvert
3 Stranger in Paradise--Tony Bennett
--The Four Aces
--Tony Martin
4 Make Love to Me--Jo Stafford
5 That's Amore--Dean Martin
6 From the Vine Came the Grape--The Gaylords
--The Hilltoppers
7 Changing Partners--Patti Page
8 The Gang that Sang "Heart of My Heart"--The Four Aces
-- Don Cornell, Alan Dale, and Johnny Desmond
9 Darktown Strutters' Ball (Italian Style)--Lou Monte
10 Till Then--The Hilltoppers

Singles entering the chart were There'll Be No Teardrops Tonight by Tony Bennett (#20); The Man with the Banjo by the Ames Brothers (#29); Lovin' Spree by Eddie Hill (#30, with the version by Eartha Kitt); Crystal Ball by the Johnson Brothers (#35); Lost in Loveliness, with versions by Billy Eckstine and Doris Day (#36); That's What a Rainy Day is For by Tony Martin (#37); Amor by the Four Aces (#40); Stop Chasin' Me, Baby by the Lancers (#42); and Fancy Pants by David Carroll and his Orchestra (#50). The Man with the Banjo was the B-side (or maybe the A-side) of Man, Man is for the Woman Made, charting at #25.

50 years ago
1964

Hit parade
#1 single in Ireland (IRMA): Needles and Pins--The Searchers (4th week at #1)

Edmonton's Top 10 (CJCA)
1 She Loves You--The Beatles (3rd week at #1)
2 I Want to Hold Your Hand--The Beatles
3 Kissin' Cousins--Elvis Presley
4 Please Please Me--The Beatles
5 Young and in Love--Chris Crosby
6 Roll Over Beethoven--The Beatles
7 Navy Blue--Diane Renay
8 Don't Talk to Him--Cliff Richard and the Shadows
9 Twist and Shout--The Beatles
10 White on White--Danny Williams
Pick hit of the week: The Waiting Game--Brenda Lee
New this week: Crooked Little Man--The Serendipity Singers
We Love You Beatles--The Carefrees
A Letter to the Beatles--The Four Preps
Down by the Riverside--Joey Dee
That's What I Want--The Cicadas
This Train--Percy Faith and his Orchestra

On television tonight
Twilight Zone, hosted by Rod Serling, on CBS
Tonight's episode: Queen of the Nile, starring Ann Blyth and Lee Philips

The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, on CBS
Tonight's episode: Murder Case, starring John Cassavetes, Gena Rowlands, Murray Matheson, and Ben Wright

John Brahm directed both of the programs mentioned above.

Died on this date
Paul, 62. King of the Hellenes, 1947-1964. Paul succeeded his brother George II as King of Greece during the Greek Civil War. He died of stomach cancer and was succeeded by his son Constantine II. King Paul was a first cousin of Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh.

Divorced on this date
Elizabeth Taylor, U.K. actress, and Eddie Fisher, U.S. singer. The divorce was the third in four marriages for Ms. Taylor and the second in as many marriages for Mr. Fisher, who had left his first wife, actress Debbie Reynolds, to marry Miss Taylor in 1959 after the death of her third husband, Mike Todd.

Popular culture
Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad officially gave world heavyweight boxing champion Cassius Clay the name Muhammad Ali.

40 years ago
1974

Hit parade
#1 single in Switzerland: Kansas City--Les Humphries Singers (3rd week at #1)

Died on this date
Roy Stewart, 25. U.K. soccer player. Mr. Stewart, a halfback with the Glentoran team from Belfast, died of a heart attack the day after playing in a 2-0 loss at Borrussia Moenchengladbach in West Germany in a European Winners Cup quarter-finals match. He did not complain of any illness during the game.

Television
Don Meredith signed with NBC after four years as part of the crew of Monday Night Football telecasts on ABC. "Dandy Don" hoped that going to NBC would allow him to pursue additional opportunities, such as acting roles.

Politics and government
Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir ended nine weeks of political stalemate by forming a new coalition cabinet which included Defense Minister Moshe Dayan and Communications Minister Shimon Peres, both of whom reversed decisions not to serve unless the cabinet included members of the right-wing Likud party.

Scandal
Presidential counsel James St. Clair announced that U.S. President Richard Nixon would turn over to the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee all the tapes and materials that the White House had previously delivered to Special Prosecutor Leon Jaworski, who was investigating the June 1972 break-in at the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C. and the subsequent cover-up. Mr. St. Clair added that Mr. Nixon would be willing to submit to written questions from the committee and, if necessary, to an interview at the White House by a small number of committee members. Mr. Nixon, in a nationally-televised news conference, called his decision "a very forthcoming affair." Mr. Nixon also denied that on March 21, 1973 he had approved the payment of hush money or granting of clemency to the defendants in the Watergate break-in, but conceded that the taped conversation of the meeting with White House counsel John Dean might be subject to other interpretations. Mr. Nixon admitted that the question of hush money had come up in the conversation, but that he had clearly stated, "It is wrong, that's for sure."

Labour
British coal miners ended their four-week-old strike after deciding to accept an offer of a 35% pay increase from the new Labour Party government of Prime Minister Harold Wilson.

Energy
U.S. President Richard Nixon vetoed the emergency energy bill that had been passed by Congress. His veto was promptly sustained when the Senate voted 58-40 in favour of the bill, 8 votes short of the two-thirds majority needed to override the president's veto. Mr. Nixon said the bill threatened "to undo the progress we have already made" and to create "a host of new problems." He objected chiefly to the bill's provision for a rollback in crude oil prices; the result of that, Mr. Nixon argued, would be reduced energy supplies, longer gasoline lines, and increased unemployment. The bill had also authorized the establishment of gas rationing and benefits for workers losing their jobs because of "energy-related" conditions.

Popular culture
An Italian gambler lost a record $1,920,000 at roulette in Monte Carlo.

30 years ago
1984

Hit parade
#1 single in Sweden (Topplistan): Radio Ga Ga--Queen

Died on this date
Martin Niemöller, 92. German clergyman. Mr. Niemöller was a Lutheran pastor who initially supported Adolf Hitler when the Nazis came to power in Germany in 1933, but turned against the Nazis when they increasingly adopted anti-Jewish measures. He was one of the founders of the Confessional Church, which opposed Nazification of German Protestant churches. Mr. Niemöller's opposition to the Nazi regime resulted in his imprisonment in Sachsenhausen and Dachau concentration camps from 1937-1945. He became increasingly liberal in his later years, becoming a pacifist and advocate of nuclear disarmament. Mr. Niemöller became President of the World Council of Churches in 1961 and was one of several recipients of the Lenin Peace Prize in 1966.

Billy Collins, 22. U.S. boxer. Mr. Collins, a welterweight, won his first 14 professional fights before fighting Luis Resto on June 16, 1983 on the undercard of the Roberto Duran-Davey Moore light middleweight fight at Madison Square Garden in New York. Mr. Collins lost by a unanimous decision, but the result was changed to no contest after an investigation showed that padding had been removed from Mr. Resto's gloves, making them illegally underweight. More than 20 years later, Mr. Resto admitted that the wraps on his hands had been soaked in plaster of Paris before the fight, making his hands lethal weapons. Mr. Collins suffered serious eye injuries in the bout and was unable to box or work regularly again. He took to drink and crashed his car into a culvert near his home in Antioch, Tennessee, leading to suspicion that he had committed suicide.

Politics and government
The day after formally abrogating the May 1, 1983 agreement with Israel for the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Lebanon, the Lebanese government formally invited opposition leaders to meet in Lausanne, Switzerland for a new round of reconciliation talks.

25 years ago
1989

Hit parade
#1 single in Australia (Australian Music Report): I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)--The Proclaimers (3rd week at #1)

#1 single in Spain (PROMUSICAE): Real Gone Kid--Deacon Blue (3rd week at #1)

Canadiana
Monique Kavelaars, Miss Teen London, was named Miss Teen Canada 1989. The pageant was telecast on CTV.

20 years ago
1994

Hit parade
#1 single in New Zealand: Hip Hop Holiday--The Hard Way

#1 single in Austria (Ö3): All for Love--Bryan Adams, Rod Stewart and Sting (4th week at #1)

#1 single in Switzerland: All for Love--Bryan Adams, Rod Stewart and Sting (5th week at #1)

#1 single in the U.K. (Chart Information Network): Without You--Mariah Carey (4th week at #1)

Died on this date
Melina Mercouri, 73. Greek actress, singer, and politician. Miss Mercouri was known for her starring roles in the movies Never on Sunday (1960) and Topkapi (1964). She was away from Greece when a military coup took over the Greek government in 1967; she spent the next seven years in exile, campaigning against the junta and surviving terrorist attempts against her. Miss Mercouri was one of the founders of the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK), and when they gained power, she served as Greece's Minister for Culture from 1981-1989 and 1993-1994. She died of lung cancer.

10 years ago
2004

Died on this date
Frances Dee, 94. U.S. actress. Miss Dee was a popular actress in the early 1930s in movies such as Playboy of Paris (1930); An American Tragedy (1931); Little Women (1933); Of Human Bondage (1934); and Becky Sharp (1935). She married actor Joel McCrea in 1933, and they remained married until his death on their 57th wedding anniversary in 1990.

Politics and government
Former Canadian cabinet minister Sheila Copps lost a hotly-contested Liberal Party nomination contest in her Hamilton riding to Transport Minister Tony Valeri. She alleged that there were voting irregularities and asked the party to overturn the result, and later asked the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to investigate.