March 7, 2014

Born on this date
Happy Birthday, Carolyn Jagger!

1,825 years ago
189

Born on this date
Geta. Roman Emperor, 209-211. Publius Septimius Geta was the younger son of Emperor Septimius Severus, who gave him the title of Augustus in 208. Geta and his older brother Caracalla became joint rulers upon their father's death in 209, but the brothers had a lifelong feud, and Caracalla had Geta murdered by centurions on December 26, 211 at the age of 22.

370 years ago
1644

Politics and government
Massachusetts established the first two-chamber legislature in England's North American colonies.

200 years ago
1814

War
French forces commanded by Emperor Napoleon I defeated Russian and Prussian troops led by General Gebhard von Blücher is the Battle of Craonne in France.

160 years ago
1854

Technology
Charles Miller patented a sewing machine to stitch buttonholes.

100 years ago
1914

Politics and government
William of Wied, a member of the German princely house of Wied, arrived in the provisional capital of Durrës to begin his reign as Prince of Albania.

Baseball
The day after arriving in New York from Liverpool aboard the Lusitania at the conclusion of their post-season exhibition tour, the New York Giants and Chicago White Sox celebrated with a banquet at the Biltmore Hotel in New York. The tour, which had begun in mid-October, had crossed the United States before going to Japan, China, the Phillipines, Australia, Egypt, Ceylon, Italy, France, and England.

Babe Ruth of the Baltimore Orioles of the International League hit his first home run as a professional, in a spring training game in North Carolina.

75 years ago
1939

Music
Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians were in New York, where they recorded their signature tune, Auld Lang Syne, for the first time, on Decca Records.

70 years ago
1944

War
Soviet forces repulsed strong German counterattacks in western Ukraine and advanced to a point 10 miles above the railroad town of Tarnopol. American and Chinese forces in northern Burma linked up in an effort to wipe out 2,000 Japanese troops in the Hukawng Valley.

Diplomacy
El Salvador announced that it would abstain from diplomatic relations with Argentina "to fortify continental solidarity."

Politics and government
United States Senate and House of Representatives conferees adopted a bill on votes for soldiers limiting a federal ballot to citizens of states that had no absentee voting laws, and then only if valid under state laws.

Society
The U.S. Office of Education released a survey on Negro education with the recommendation that facilities of all colleges and universities in the southern United States be opened to Negroes.

60 years ago
1954

Died on this date
Otto Diels, 78. German chemist. Mr. Diels shared the 1950 Nobel Prize in chemistry with Kurt Alder for their work on synthesizing cyclic organic compounds, which proved valuable for the manufacture of synthetic rubber and plastic.

Hockey
IIHF
The fast-checking, hard-skating U.S.S.R., playing in its first international tournament, routed a heavily-favoured but highly nervous Canadian team 7-2 in Stockholm to win the men's world championship final.

50 years ago
1964

Hit parade
#1 single in Australia (Kent Music Report): I Saw Her Standing There/Love Me Do--The Beatles (4th week at #1)

#1 single in France: Et Pourtant--Charles Aznavour (3rd week at #1)

#1 single in Italy (FIMI): Una lacrima sul viso--Bobby Solo (3rd week at #1)

#1 single in West Germany (Media Control): I Want to Hold Your Hand--The Beatles (2nd week at #1)

#1 single in the U.K. (New Musical Express): Anyone Who Had a Heart--Cilla Black (3rd week at #1)

#1 single in the U.S.A. (Billboard): I Want to Hold Your Hand--The Beatles (6th week at #1)

U.S.A. Top 10 (Cash Box)
1 I Want to Hold Your Hand--The Beatles (7th week at #1)
2 She Loves You--The Beatles
3 Dawn (Go Away)--The 4 Seasons
4 Please Please Me--The Beatles
5 Java--Al Hirt
6 Navy Blue--Diane Renay
7 California Sun--The Rivieras
8 You Don't Own Me--Lesley Gore
9 Good News--Sam Cooke
10 Fun, Fun, Fun--The Beach Boys

Singles entering the chart were Think by Brenda Lee (#62); Twist and Shout by the Beatles (#64); Hippy Hippy Shake by the Swinging Blue Jeans (#66); The New Girl in School (#72)/Dead Man's Curve (#80) by Jan & Dean; Tell it on the Mountain by Peter, Paul and Mary (#73); Ain't Nothing You Can Do by Bobby Bland (#77); Money by the Kingsmen (#79); It Hurts Me by Elvis Presley (#82); Hand it Over by Chuck Jackson (#88); Hey Dean, Hey Jean by Jean and Dean (#91); To Each His Own by the Tymes (#92); Our Everlasting Love by Ruby and the Romantics (#93); Look Homeward Angel by the Monarchs (#94); T'Ain't Nothin' to Me by the Coasters (#97); White on White by Danny Williams (#98); Who's Going to Take Care of Me by Justine Washington (#99); and (You Can’t Let The Boy Overpower) The Man in You by the Miracles (#100). It Hurts Me was the B-side of Kissin' Cousins, charting at #16.

40 years ago
1974

Hit parade
#1 single in Ireland (IRMA): Jealous Mind--Alvin Stardust

Albertana
Streaking, the fad of running naked or near-naked that had recently begun on U.S. college campuses, arrived in Calgary, with the report of the city's first streaker.

Scandal
A U.S. federal grand jury in Washington, D.C. indicted John Ehrlichman, Charles Colson, G. Gordon Liddy, Bernard Barker, Eugenio Martinez, and Felipe Diego in the 1971 break-in at the Beverly Hills, California office of Dr. Lewis Fielding, psychiatrist to former U.S. Defense Department employee Daniel Ellsberg, who had leaked the Pentagon Papers--documents related to U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War--to the press. E. Howard Hunt, Egil Krogh, and David Young, Jr., all members of the White House "plumbers"--a group of men whose job was to plug "leaks" from the administration of President Richard Nixon--were named as unindicted co-conspirators. All nine were charged with violating Dr. Fielding's civil rights by working together to "oppress, threaten and intimidate" him by secretly entering his office "without legal process, probable cause, search warrant or other lawful authority." According to the indictment, the burglary was initiated, with Mr. Ehrlichman's approval, "on assurance it is not traceable," to obtain Dr. Fielding's files on Mr. Ellsberg. Mr. Ehrlichman was also charged with four other counts--three for lying to a grand jury, and one for making false statements to the Federal Bureau of Invesitgation.

The U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee disclosed that White Hose counsel James St. Clair had informed them that President Richard Nixon would not comply with requests for further materials not bearing directly on 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. The committee decided to defer a subpoena on an outstanding request for six tapes of White House conversations not bearing directly on the cover-up.

Protest
Ethiopian workers began a strike for 16 demands, including a minimum wage of $1.50 per day, pension plans, and a social security system.

Economics and finance
U.K. Prime Minister Harold Wilson ended the three-day work week that had been necessitated by the recent three-week coal strike, which had ended the previous day.

30 years ago
1984

War
The Red Cross announced that 160 Iranian soldiers examined by a Red Cross medical team in Tehran had been affected by "substances prohibited by international law." The announcement came two days after The New York Times had reported that a U.S. State Department official believed that Iraq was using mustard gas in its war against Iran.

Protest
400 students at Stanislaw Staszic Agricultural College in Poland conducted a sit-in to protest the removal of crucifixes from their classrooms. Ryszard Debrynski, the school's director, had ordered the action in response to a government directive barring the crucifixes from hospitals and schools, reflecting the constitutional separation of church and state. Police broke up the sit-in, and the college was closed.

25 years ago
1989

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

Space
This blogger was one of many North Americans who saw a solar eclipse in the morning. The first solar eclipse witnessed by this blogger also occurred on March 7--in 1970.

Diplomacy
Iran and the United Kingdom severed diplomatic relations because of the fatwa (legal judgment) imposed by Iran's Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini upon British author Salman Rushdie, whose novel The Satanic Verses (1988) was regarded as disrespectful to the prophet Muhammad.

Protest
China imposed martial law in Tibet after three days of violent protests led by Buddhist monks and nuns against Chinese rule in Tibet.

Labour
U.S. President George Bush said that he had chosen not to use his authority to postpone the strike of Eastern Airlines machinists because he believed that the strike should be resolved through the free collective bargaining process.

20 years ago
1994

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

Singles entering the chart were Love Sneakin' Up on You by Bonnie Raitt (#60); Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia) by Us3 (#62); No Excuses by Alice in Chains (#63); So Much in Love by All-4-Love (#81); Nobody's Hero by Rush (#82); Listen for the Laugh by Bruce Cockburn (#84); and Whispering Shadows by Patrick Norman (#94).

Diplomacy
Poland announced that it would join Hungary in applying for membership in the European Union.

Politics and government
Lucas Mangope, President of the South African "homeland" of Bophuthatswana, refused to allow his homeland to participate in South Africa's first universal-suffrage election in late April. According to the negotiated constitution that was scheduled to take effect on the date of the election, the nominally independent homelands would be reincorporated into South Africa. White extremists poured into Bophuthatswana to support Mr. Mangope's stand, demanding their own homeland--a demand that was rejected by African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela.

Law
In a case of copyright law, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc. that parodies of an original work were generally covered by the doctrine of fair use.

Hockey
NHL
St. Louis 3 Toronto 2

10 years ago
2004

Died on this date
Paul Winfield, 64. U.S. actor. Mr. Winfield was nominated for an Academy Award for his starring performance in Sounder (1972). He won an Emmy Award in 1995 for his guest appearance in an episode of the series Picket Fences, and was nominated for Emmy Awards for the miniseries King (1978) and Roots: The Next Generations (1979).

Abominations
Vicky Gene Robinson was invested in Concord, New Hampshire as the Episcopal Church U.S.A.'s first openly sodomite bishop.

Politics and government
The conservative New Democracy party, led by Kostas Karamanlis, defeated the governing socialist party PASOK in Greek parliamentary elections.