December 19, 2014

120 years ago
1894

Born on this date
Ford Frick. U.S. baseball executive. Mr. Frick was President of the National League from 1934-1951, and Commissioner of Baseball from 1951-1965. His most controversial decision as Commissioner was the ruling that the single season home run records of Babe Ruth and Roger Maris should be listed separately because Mr. Ruth’s season was 8 games shorter. It was later revealed that Mr. Frick had served as a ghostwriter for Mr. Ruth earlier in his career. He was also one of the last people to see the Babe alive; he visited him in the hospital the day before the Babe died. Mr. Frick was also accused by some of favouring the National League in his decisions as Commissioner, such as how expansion teams in the 1960s were to be stocked. As National League President, Mr. Frick enforced the lowering of the colour bar, and threatened to suspend any players who planned to protest the presence of Jackie Robinson in the league. Before becoming a baseball executive, Ford Frick was a sportswriter, first in the Midwest, then in New York. He also appeared on radio, and pioneered the daily radio sportscast. Mr. Frick was hired by the National League as its publicity director in 1934; he became NL President later that year. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1970, and died on April 8, 1978 at the age of 83, after a series of strokes.

70 years ago
1944

Died on this date
Abbas II, 70. Khedive of Egypt and Sudan, 1892-1914. Abbas II was the last Khedive of Egypt and Sudan, serving under the Ottoman Empire. He died 30 years--virtually to the day--after being deposed by Great Britain because of his support for the Ottoman Empire at the beginning of World War I.

War
U.S. forces in Belgium struck back at the German offensive, taking Stavelot and engaging in heavy fighting in Malmedy. Soviet forces in Czechoslovakia drove to within 9 miles of the Kosice rail junction. In wide-ranging attacks, Allied planes struck Omura on the Japanese island of Kyushu, as well as the Chinese cities of Shanghai and Nanking. The British Information Service announced in Washington that under the terms of an interim agreement all British forces, save a few border patrols, would be withdrawn from Ethiopia.

Economics and finance
United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration Director Herbert Lehman announced the withdrawal from Greece of most of the UNRRA staff because of military conditions in the country.

Scandal
A U.S. federal grand jury indicted Carl L. Norden, Inc., Theodore Barth and Ward Marvelle--officials of the organization--and United States Naval Reserve Commander John Corrigan on charges of conspiring to defraud the United States government by restricting production of the Norden bombsight to the Norden firm.

Politics and government
Three days of voting concluded in Guatemala, resulting in the election of philosophy professor Juan José Arévalo Bermejo of the Revolutionary Action Party as the country's new President, to take office on March 15, 1945. Mr. Arévalo took 86.25% of the vote.

The United States Senate, just prior to adjournment and the expiration of the 77th Congress, confirmed all six of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's nominees as assistants to Secretary of State Edward Stettinius. The nominees included Joseph Grew; William Clayton; Nelson Rockefeller; and Archibald MacLeish.

Labour
Montgomery Ward announced a basic minimum wage plan, approved by the U.S. National War Labor Board, for its stores in the Detroit area.

50 years ago
1964

Hit parade
#1 single in Australia (Kent Music Report): I Feel Fine/She's a Woman--The Beatles (2nd week at #1)

#1 single in France: Sacré Charlemagne--France Gall

#1 single in Italy (FIMI): Non son degno di te--Gianni Morandi

#1 single in West Germany (Media Control): Pretty Woman--Roy Orbison

#1 single in the U.K. (New Musical Express): I Feel Fine--The Beatles (3rd week at #1)

#1 single in the U.S.A. (Billboard): Come See About Me--The Supremes

U.S.A. Top 10 (Cash Box)
1 I Feel Fine--The Beatles
2 Mr. Lonely--Bobby Vinton
3 Come See About Me--The Supremes
4 Ringo--Lorne Greene
5 She's Not There--The Zombies
6 Time is on My Side--The Rolling Stones
7 I'm Into Something Good--Herman's Hermits
8 Goin' Out of My Head--Little Anthony and the Imperials
9 The Jerk--The Larks
10 Dance, Dance, Dance--The Beach Boys

Singles entering the chart were You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' by the Righteous Brothers (#72); Hold What You've Got by Joe Tex (#73); I Can't Stop by the Honeycombs (#84); Come On Do the Jerk by the Miracles (#87); My Buddy Seat by the Hondells (#88); You're Nobody Till Somebody Loves You (#89)/You'll Always Be the One I Love (#91) by Dean Martin; The Name Game by Shirley Ellis (#92); Downtown by Petula Clark (#98); Fiddler on the Roof by the Village Stompers (#99); and Lovely, Lovely (Loverly, Loverly) by Chubby Checker (#100).

On television tonight
The Outer Limits, on ABC
Tonight's episode: The Duplicate Man, starring Ron Randell, Sean McClory, and Constance Towers

World events
The South Vietnamese military junta of General Nguyễn Khánh dissolved the High National Council--an unelected advisory body created by the junta at the request of the United States--and arrested some of the members.

Defense
In Halifax, the Royal Canadian Navy commissioned HMCS Annapolis, the 20th ship in the destroyer escort program.

40 years ago
1974

Hit parade
#1 single in Ireland (IRMA): Oh Yes! You're Beautiful--Gary Glitter

Politics and government
Under the provisions of the Twenty-Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, Nelson Rockefeller was sworn in as Vice President of the United States under President Gerald Ford.

30 years ago
1984

Abominations
British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Chinese Premier Zhao Ziyang signed an agreement to transfer Hong Kong to China in 1997.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sino-British_Joint_Declaration

Hockey
NHL
Scotty Bowman became the NHL's career leader in victories with 691 when he coached the Buffalo Sabres to a 6-3 victory over the Black Hawks in Chicago.

25 years ago
1989

Died on this date
Stella Gibbons, 87. U.K. writer. Miss Gibbons was a journalist, poetess, and novelist. She was best known for the novel Cold Comfort Farm (1932). Miss Gibbons died after years of declining health, 17 days before her 88th birthday.

Diplomacy
West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl met with East German Premier Hans Modrow.

Protest
Pro-democracy demonstrations that had begun in Timisoara, Transylvania, Romania several days earlier spread to two other cities.

Crime
A bomb was discovered at the Jacksonville, Florida office of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People before it exploded. Federal investigators said that they had "hard forensic evidence" to link the bomb with those that had killed Alabama judge Robert Vance on December 16 and Savannah, Georgia attorney Robert Robinson on December 18. Another bomb had been discovered at the federal court building in Atlanta on December 18. Eventually, Walter Moody was convicted of murder and currently sits on death row in Alabama.

Economics and finance
The United States Labor Department reported that consumer prices had risen 0.4% in November.

20 years ago
1994

Hit parade
#1 single in Norway (VG-lista): Cotton Eye Joe--Rednex (11th week at #1)

#1 single in Germany (Media Control): Cotton Eye Joe--Rednex (7th week at #1)

Canada's Top 10 (RPM)
1 Always--Bon Jovi (3rd week at #1)
2 Secret--Madonna
3 Out of Tears--Rolling Stones
4 Insensitive--Jann Arden
5 On Bended Knee--Boyz II Men
6 You Don't Know How it Feels--Tom Petty
7 Get Over It--Eagles
8 Blind Man--Aerosmith
9 Dance Naked--John Mellencamp
10 What's the Frequency, Kenneth--R.E.M.

Singles entering the chart were Sukiyaki by 4 P.M. (#80); Soldier of Love by the Beatles (#85); You Wreck Me by Tom Petty (#86); Better Man by Pearl Jam (#90); and How Strong by Doucette (#92). Soldier of Love, recorded in July 1963, was from the album Live at the BBC, a compilation of recordings made on BBC Light Programme radio shows from 1963-1965.

Business
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission approved the $3.1-billion takeover of Maclean Hunter, Ltd. by Rogers Communications, Inc.

10 years ago
2004

Died on this date
Herbert C. Brown, 92. U.K.-born U.S. chemist. Dr. Brown, born Herbert Brovarnik, was born in London, but moved to the United States with his family at the age of 2. He shared the 1979 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Georg Wittig "for their development of the use of boron- and phosphorus-containing compounds, respectively, into important reagents in organic synthesis."