July 5, 2014

420 years ago
1594

War
Portuguese forces under the command of Pedro Lopes de Sousa began an unsuccessful invasion of the Kingdom of Kandy during the Campaign of Danture in Sri Lanka.

220 years ago
1794

Born on this date
Sylvester Graham. U.S. clergyman and food faddist. Rev. Graham was a Presbyterian minister who became a temperance activist and the "Father of vegetarianism in America," advocating whole-grain breads, and inspiring the creation of graham flour, graham bread, and graham cracker products. His diet didn't prevent him from dying at the age of 57 on September 11, 1851, although he reportedly briefly strayed from his self-imposed restrictions in an attempt to regain his health.

200 years ago
1814

War
In the War of 1812, U.S. forces commanded by Major General Jacob Brown defeated General Phineas Riall's 1,800 British troops at Street's Creek (Chippewa), Upper Canada in the Battle of Chippewa.

140 years ago
1874

Born on this date
Eugen Fischer. German eugenicist. Professor Fischer studied medicine, folkloristics, history, anatomy, and anthropology in Berlin. He conducted field research in German South West Africa (now Namibia) in 1906, studying the children produced by German or Boer men and black African women. His recommendation that interraciald marriages be prohibited in German colonies became law in 1912. Prof. Fischer conducted medical experiments on Herero and Nama prisoners during the German genocide of these peoples, and saved their bones and skulls for further research. Prof. Fischer became director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Anthropology, Human Heredity, and Eugenics in 1927. His racial views influenced Adolf Hitler, and after Mr. Hitler took office as Chancellor of Germany in 1933, he appointed Prof. Fischer rector of Frederick William University of Berlin. Prof. Fischer didn't join the Nazi Party until 1940, but he was a supporter of the Nazis from the time they took power in 1933. In 1937-1938, Prof. Fischer and his colleagues analyzed the skulls of 600 children in Germany descended from French-African soldiers who had occupied western areas of Germany after World War I; known as Rhineland Bastards, the children were soon sterilized. Prof Fischer co-authored a textbbook on anthropology that remained the standard university text on the subject in Germany until the early 1960s. He retired from his university position in 1942, and died on July 9, 1967, four days after his 93rd birthday.

130 years ago
1884

World events
Germany took possession of Cameroon.

125 years ago
1889

Born on this date
Jean Cocteau. French author and film director. Mr. Cocteau was known for novels such as Les Enfants Terribles (1929) and films such as Blood of a Poet (1930); Beauty and the Beast (1946); and Orpheus (1949). He died on October 11, 1963 at the age of 74.

Died on this date
John Norquay, 48. Canadian politician. Mr. Norquay, of Anglo-Métis ancestry, was born near St. Andrews in Red River Colony, which became the province of Manitoba in 1870. A Conservative, he sat in the Manitoba Legislative Assembly from 1870 until his death, holding various cabinet posts, and serving as Premier from 1878-1887. Mr. Norquay died after a period of declining health. Mount Norquay in Banff National Park in Alberta was named in his honour in 1904.

110 years ago
1904

Born on this date
Milburn Stone. U.S. actor. Mr. Stone appeared in vaudeville in the late 1920s and early '30s before going to Hollywood, where he appeared in character roles in numerous movies. He was best known for playing Doc Adams in more than 600 episodes of the television series Gunsmoke (1955-1975). Mr. Stone died on a heart attack on June 12, 1980, 23 days before his 76th birthday.

80 years ago
1934

At the movies
I Can't Escape, directed by Otto Brower, and starring Onslow Stevens, Lila Lee, and Russell Gleason, opened in theatres.



Protest
On what became known as "Bloody Thursday," police opened fire on striking longshoremen in San Francisco, killing Howard Sperry and Nick Bordoise.

Baseball
Lou Gehrig hit an inside-the-park grand slam to help the New York Yankees to an 8-3 win over the Washington Nationals at Yankee Stadium. It was Mr. Gehrig’s 17th career major league grand slam, breaking Babe Ruth’s record. Mr. Gehrig added another home run and two singles, driving in 7 runs.

70 years ago
1944

War
About 200 U.S. planes returned to England after bombing Germany, with refuelling stops in Russia and Italy. In a move to shorten their lines, German forces abandoned Kovel, 175 miles southeast of Warsaw. U.S. troops on Numfor Island in Indonesia occupied Manim Islet, 3 miles off the west coast. U.S. Navy Secretary James Forrestal claimed that since U.S. entry into World War II in December 1941, U.S. submarines had sunk 640 Japanese ships. He put the total number of Japanese merchant ships sunk by all means at 985.

Politics and government
The Greek cabinet rejected terms of the left-wing guerrilla organization EAM for its collaboration with the government-in-exile.

Law
U.S. Federal Judge Edward Eicher dismissed James Laughlin, the attorney for 2 of the 29 defendants in a District of Columbia sedition trial, after Mr. Laughlin filed a petition of impeachment against Judge Eicher in the U.S. House of Representatives.

60 years ago
1954

On television today
The British Broadcasting Corporation broadcast its first daily television news program.

Music
Elvis Presley recorded That's All Right, his first commercial record, for Sun Records at Sun Studios in Memphis.

Law
The Andhra Pradesh High Court was established in India.

50 years ago
1964

Boxing
Former world heavyweight champion Floyd Patterson (40-4) won a 12-round decision over Eddie Machen (47-5-2) at Rasunda in Solna, Sweden.



40 years ago
1974

Hit parade
#1 single in New Zealand: The Streak--Ray Stevens (4th week at #1)

#1 single in West Germany (Media Control): Waterloo--ABBA (4th week at #1)

Football
CFL
Pre-season
Ottawa (3-0) 26 @ Edmonton (0-2) 25

30 years ago
1984

Crime
Umaru Dikko, a former transport and aviation minister in the Nigerian government who had fled to England after a military coup in December 1983 and was wanted in Nigeria on charges of corruption, was kidnapped in London. British police broke into a crate at Stansted Airport, 30 miles north of London, and found Mr. Dikko, who had been drugged. A man with drugs and syringes also occupied the crate; two more men were found I another crate. The crates had been marked "diplomatic baggage." The British authorities held the aricraft that was to have flown the crates to Nigeria.

World events
Lebanese troops began to dismantle the "green line," a barricade of rubble and burned-out cars that had separated the Christian and Muslim halves of Beirut. An army brigade composed of both Christians and Muslims was to be deployed between the halves of the city.

25 years ago
1989

Hit parade
#1 single in Finland (Musiikkituottajat – IFPI Finland): Minä olen muistanut--Kim Lönnholm (8th week at #1)

#1 single in Sweden (Topplistan): Eternal Flame--Bangles (6th week at #1)

On television tonight
The Seinfeld Chronicles, on NBC

This was the pilot for the comedy series Seinfeld (1990-1999).

Diplomacy
Two days of talks in France between Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and French President Francois Mitterand concluded with the nations signing 21 accords. The leaders also issued a declaration calling for an immediate cease-fire in Lebanon and an end to the arming of the various factions there. Mr. Gorbachev told reporters that he was prepared to develop normal relations with Solidarity leaders in Poland, but he also called U.S. President George Bush’s appeal for a Soviet troop withdrawal from Poland "propaganda."

Politics and government
South African President Pieter Botha met secretly in his office with Negro nationalist leader Nelson Mandela, who had been in prison since 1962. After the meeting became publicly known, the government gave no indication that it planned to free Mr. Mandela.

Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir agreed to demands by hard-liners in his own Likud party as follows: elections in the occupied territories would not take place until the Palestinian uprising ended; Arabs in East Jerusalem could not run for office or vote; Jewish settlement of the territories would continue; and no Palestinian state would ever be established. Labour Party leader Shimon Peres, a partner of Mr. Shamir in the coalition government, said that Mr. Shamir’s concessions had jeopardized the peace process. The Palestine Liberation Organization denounced Mr. Shamir’s concessions.

Florida Governor Bob Martinez said that he would call a special session of the state legislature to consider controls on abortion.

Scandal
Former White House aide Oliver North received a three-year suspended prison sentence, two years’ probation, 1,200 hours of community service, and a $150,000 fine after being convicted on 3 of 12 charges in connection with the Iran-Contra scandal (the sale of arms to Iran, resulting in money going to support the opposition Contras in Nicaragua), which broke in 1986. Mr. North was convicted of aiding and abetting an obstruction of Congress (somebody else’s obstruction, not his own); shredding documents; and accepting an illegal gratuity (an electric fence around his house to protect him from terrorist Abu Nidal). Contrary to popular belief, Mr. North was found not guilty on the charge of lying to Congress. The sentence was handed down by Judge Gerhard Gesell in U.S. District Court in Washington. The guilty verdicts were later overturned on appeal.

Football
CFL
Pre-season
Hamilton (2-0) 23 @ Winnipeg (0-3) 16
Calgary (0-2) 10 @ Edmonton (1-1) 41

Rookie receivers Keith Wright and Tony Hunter each returned a punt for a touchdown, and Cornelius Redick also contributed some fine returns in an entertaining game before 37,000 fans at Commonwealth Stadium. A fight broke out in the fourth quarter when Calgary head coach Lary Kuharich sent his team across the field to mix things up; Stampeders’ rookie defensive lineman Joe March was ejected.

20 years ago
1994

War
The Rwandan Patriotic Front, which had seized the capital of Kigali and the nation's second-largest city, agreed to respect the security zone to which 600,000 refugees had fled.

Politics and government
In a ceremony in Jericho on the West Bank, Palestine Liberation Organization chairman Yasser Arafat took the oath as head of the new Palestinian National Authority.

Law
The report of a Quebec provincial inquiry said that the Montreal police force was poorly supervised, badly trained, and racist.

10 years ago
2004

Died on this date
Rodger Ward, 83. U.S. auto racing driver. Mr. Ward won the Indianapolis 500 in 1959 and 1962 and won the national championship for the season in both years. He was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1992.

Hugh Shearer, 81. Prime Minister of Jamaica, 1967-1972. Mr. Shearer led the Jamaica Labour Party from 1967-1974, becoming Prime Minister after the death in office of Sir Donald Sangster. He served as Minister of Foreign Affairs in the government of Prime Minister Edward Seaga from 1980-1989.

Politics and government
The first round of Indonesia's first direct presidential election was held. Democratic Party candidate Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was leading with 33.57% of the vote.

War
The United States Senate Intelligence Committee reported that information on Iraq's weapons program that was used to justify the U.S. war in Iraq was flawed.