January 19, 2015

250 years ago
1765

Died on this date
Johan Agrell, 63. Swedish-born German composer. Mr. Agrell was a violinist and baroque composer who wrote at least 22 symphonies, vocal works, and harpsichord concertos and sonatas. He died 13 days before his 64th birthday.

220 years ago
1795

Europeana
The Batavian Republic was proclaimed in the Netherlands, bringing to an end the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands. William V, Prince of Orange, stadtholder of the Dutch Republic, had fled the country the previous day.

190 years ago
1825

Died on this date
Maria Sophie, 83. Queen consort of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, 1859-1861. Maria Sophie, a daughter of Maximilian Joseph, Duke in Bavaria and Princess Ludovika, married Francesco II, Crown Prince of Naples, Duke of Calabria in 1859, and became queen consort when he acceded to the throne later that year. The couple fled to Rome after the kingdom Giuseppe Garibaldi's forces, and remained there until 1870, and then fled to Bavaria after Rome fell to Italian troops. Francesco II was deposed in 1861, and his kingdom was incorporated into Italy. He died in 1894. Maria Sophie spent some time in exile in Paris, but eventually returned to Bavaria, dying in Munich.

100 years ago
1915

War
German zeppelins bombed the English towns of Great Yarmouth and King's Lynn, killing more than 20 in the first major aerial bombardment of a civilian target.

Technology
The electric neon discharge tube, commonly used in advertising signs, was patented in the United States by George Claude of Paris.

80 years ago
1935

Technology
Coopers Inc. sold the world's first briefs.

75 years ago
1940

At the movies
You Nazty Spy!, produced and directed by Jules White, and starring the Three Stooges, opened in theatres. It was the first Hollywood film of any kind to satirize Adolf Hitler and the Nazis.



Died on this date
William Borah, 74. U.S. politician. Mr. Borah, a Republican, represented Idaho in the United States Senate from 1907 until his death. He was Chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations from 1924-1933 and was Dean of the Senate from 1933 until his death. He was known for his support of an isolationist foreign policy, and was one of the leading opponents of U.S. membership in the League of Nations, but took a favourable attitude toward the U.S.S.R. Senator Borah was known for his oratorical skills, and when he spoke on the Senate floor, a shout of "Borah's up!" from someone in the press gallery would immediately bring reporters into the chamber to hear him.

War
Chinese dispatches estimated 3,000 Japanese fatalities in fighting in the Chinese province of Hupeh.

Defense
Slovakia adopted military conscription.

Politics and government
The French parliament banned all Communist Party senators and deputies who had not repudiated their association with the international Communist movement as of October 26, 1939.

Disasters
Associated Press reported 82 deaths in 24 American states due to the cold wave moving across the U.S. from the Canadian northwest.

Sport
The Amateur Athletic Unions' Pan-American Games Committee chose the United States as the best country to host the 1940 games, pending formal cancellation of the 1940 Summer Olympic Games in Helsinki. The Olympic had originally been awarded to Tokyo, but after Japan forfeited the games in 1938, the International Olympic Committee had rescheduled the games to be held in Helsinki from July 20-August 4, 1940.

70 years ago
1945

War
As British forces made further advances in the Netherlands, American forces tightened pressure on the German salient in the Ardennes. Soviet forces liberated the Polish cities of Krakow and Łódź. Of more than 200,000 inhabitants of the Łódź ghetto in 1940, less than 900 had survived the Nazi occupation. The U.S.S.R. notified the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration that its port and inland transportation systems needed to take relief supplies to Poland and Czechoslovakia were now available.

Diplomacy
U.S. Secretary of State Edward Stettinius announced that he would accompany President Franklin D. Roosevelt to the next meeting with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet dictator Josef Stalin and that he would also attend the Inter-American Conference in Mexico City.

Economics and finance
U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt announced that the U.S.A., U.K., and Canada had agreed to continue the Combined Production and Resources Board; the Combined Raw Materials Board; and the Combined Food Board, until Japan was defeated.

Scandal
The U.S. government filed suit in Trenton, New Jersey, charging 18 steel concerns, including Carnegie, Republic, and Bethlehem, with conspiring to fix prices and restrain trade since 1934.

60 years ago
1955

On television today
A presidential news conference was filmed for TV for the first time, with the permission of U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

At the movies
Unchained, starring Elroy Hirsch, Barbara Hale, and Chester Morris, opened in theatres.



Politics and government
At his news conference, U.S. President Eisenhower discussed topics that included tensions in China, the federal budget, and Mr. Eisenhower's assessment of his first two years in office.





50 years ago
1965

Born on this date
Happy Birthday, Inese!

On television tonight
The Fugitive, starring David Janssen, on ABC
Tonight's episode: Nicest Fella You'd Ever Want to Meet, with guest stars Pat Hingle, Mary Murphy, Dabney Coleman, and Tom Skerritt

Music
The Beach Boys were at Western Recording Studios in Hollywood, California, where they finished recording the songs Good to My Baby; Help Me, Ronda; I'm So Young; and In the Back of My Mind, all of which appeared on the album The Beach Boys Today!

Space
The United States launched Gemini 2 from Launch Complex 19 at Cape Kennedy, Florida aboard a Titan II rocket. The second and last unmanned Gemini mission was suborbital, lasted 18 minutes and 16 seconds, and was a success.







The mission of the Soviet satellite Cosmos 52 ended, one week after launch.

40 years ago
1975

Died on this date
Thomas Hart Benton, 85. U.S. artist. Mr. Benton, a native of Neosho, Missouri and longtime resident of Kansas City, Missouri, was a major figure in the Regionalist movement, and was known for his paintings of everyday life in the United States, particularly the Midwest.

Disasters
An earthquake measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale struck the state of Himachal Pradesh in northern India, causing 47 casualties and damaging many buildings.

Golf
Johnny Miller continued his hot streak by capturing the Tucson Open, defeating runner-up John Mahaffey by 9 strokes with a record 25-under-par score of 263. The week before, Mr. Miller had won the Phoenix Open by shooting 24-under-par 260.

Basketball
NBA
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar scored 50 points as the Milwaukee Bucks defeated the Portland Trail Blazers. Rookie Portland center Bill Walton was held to 7 points. Both players were former centers with the University of California at Los Angeles Bruins, and this was the first time they had played against each other.

Hockey
NHL
Toronto 3 @ Boston 6

Carol Vadnais and Don Marcotte each scored his 100th career NHL goal as the Bruins defeated the Maple Leafs before 14,521 fans at Boston Garden in the weekly CBC radio broadcast. Terry O'Reilly, Phil Esposito, Gregg Sheppard, and Andre Savard also scored for Boston. Dave Keon, Lanny McDonald, and Bob Neely scored for Toronto. The highlight of the game for many was a fight between Mr. O'Reilly and Toronto rookie Dave "Tiger" Williams.

30 years ago
1985

Hit parade
#1 single in Italy (FIMI): Careless Whisper--George Michael (3rd week at #1)

#1 single in Flanders (Ultratop 50): Do They Know it's Christmas?--Band Aid (3rd week at #1)

#1 single in the Netherlands (De Nederlandse Top 40): Do They Know it's Christmas?--Band Aid (3rd week at #1)

#1 single in Ireland (IRMA): Do They Know it's Christmas?--Band Aid (5th week at #1)

#1 single in the U.K.: I Want to Know What Love Is--Foreigner

#1 single in the U.S.A. (Billboard): Like a Virgin--Madonna (5th week at #1)

U.S.A. Top 10 (Cash Box)
1 Like a Virgin--Madonna (4th week at #1)
2 All I Need--Jack Wagner
3 Cool it Now--New Edition
4 Run to You--Bryan Adams
5 You're the Inspiration--Chicago
6 I Want to Know What Love Is--Foreigner
7 Do They Know it's Christmas?--Band Aid
8 Born in the U.S.A.--Bruce Springsteen
9 Sea of Love--The Honeydrippers
10 Easy Lover--Philip Bailey (with Phil Collins)

Singles entering the chart were California Girls by David Lee Roth (#35); Can't Fight this Feeling by REO Speedwagon (#44); Rockin' at Midnight by the Honeydrippers (#58); Private Dancer by Tina Turner (#61); Ooh Ooh Song by Pat Benatar (#64); I Wanna Hear it from Your Lips by Eric Carmen (#79); This is My Night by Chaka Khan (#80); Too Late for Goodbyes by Julian Lennon (#87); and Yo' Little Brother by Nolan Thomas (#88).

Canada's Top 10 (RPM)
1 Like a Virgin--Madonna
2 Do They Know it's Christmas?--Band Aid
3 I Feel for You--Chaka Khan
4 Sea of Love--The Honeydrippers
5 Run to You--Bryan Adams
6 Ti Amo--Laura Branigan
7 Careless Whisper--Wham! featuring George Michael
8 The Wild Boys--Duran Duran
9 Easy Lover--Philip Bailey (with Phil Collins)
10 Smalltown Boy--Bronski Beat

Singles entering the chart were Private Dancer by Tina Turner (#71); Hang on to Your Love by Sade (#73); Sugar Walls by Sheena Easton (#80); Rockin' at Midnight by the Honeydrippers (#84); Naughty Naughty by John Parr (#93); and Misled by Kool & The Gang (#95).

25 years ago
1990

Died on this date
Herbert Wehner, 83. German politician. Mr. Wehner was a Communist from the late 1920s until his expulsion from the party during World War II, after apparently informing on fellow Communists to the Soviet secret police NKVD. After several years of foreign internment, Mr. Wehner returned to Germany in 1946, and joined the Social Democratic Party (SPD). He was a member of the West German Bundestag from 1949-1983, and was Minister of Intra-German Relations in the cabinet of Chancellor Kurt Kiesinger (1966-1969), as well as chairman of the SPD's parliamentary group (1969-1983). Mr. Wehner was notorious for his heckling style and hurling personal insults at fellow MPs, and holds the Bundestag record for official censures (77-79). He died after years of suffering from diabetes and Binswanger's disease.

Alberto Semprini, 81. U.K. musician. Mr. Semprini was a pianist, cellist, composer, and conductor who led radio orchestras, and hosted the BBC radio program Semprini Serenade from 1957 until the early 1980s. He also made numerous recordings.

Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, 58. Indian religious leader. Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, born Chandhra Mohan Jain, was a Hindu guru who became a philosophy professor and a popular lecturer in the 1950s and '60s. Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh became known as the "sex guru" because of his liberal teachings on sex. He began initiating disciples in 1970, and created an ashram. The ashram began attracting Western followers, especially after 1975, when therapists promoting human potential, aka New Age teachings arrived. Violence and abundant sexual activity between members attracted critical attention from Indian authorities, and Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and he relocated to Oregon in 1981, where American followers Sheela Silverman and her husband John Shelfer had purchased property. The Rajneesh organization created the city of Rajneeshpuram, accumulating 93 Rolls Royces and encountering stiff opposition from local residents. Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh had taken a vow of silence in April 1981, but ended the public silence in October 1984, and almost a year later publicly denounced Ms. Silverman and her associates, accusing them of serious crimes, including a 1984 salmonella attack on local residents. Rajneeshpuram collapsed, and Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh was indicted in October 1985 for conspiracy to evade U.S. immigration laws; he ended up making a deal including a fine and an agreement not to return to the United States for five years. After various stops around the world, he landed in Mumbai in July 1986, returning to his ashram in Pune six months later. He suffered from declining health, which he blamed on poisoning in U.S. jails, and in 1989 took the name Osho Rajneesh. He died of reported heart failure.

Scandal
Washington, D.C. Mayor Marion Barry was arraigned in U.S. District Court on a misdemeanour charge of willfully possessing cocaine, the day after his arrest at the Vista International Hotel in downtown Washington.

Abominations
Eight Salvadoran military officers and soldiers plus a ninth still being sought were indicted for the murders of six Jesuit priests and two other people in San Salvador in November 1989. The eight in custody pled not guilty.

Protest
Several hundred people showed up at Jan Smuts Airport in Johannesburg to protest the arrival of rebel cricketers from England who were defying a ban on playing in South Africa.

Society
R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. cancelled its plan to test-market Uptown, a new brand of cigarette aimed at Negro consumers, saying that "the unfair and biased attention the brand had received" would invalidate the results of the test. The announcement was made the day after U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Louis Sullivan had made a speech to medical students at the University of Pennsylvania sharply criticizing the plan.

20 years ago
1995

Hit parade
#1 single in Finland (Musiikkituottajat – IFPI Finland): Kourin, kourin--Sikaduo

Died on this date
Gene MacLellan, 56. Canadian musician. Mr. MacLellan, a native of Val-d'Or, Quebec, was a singer-songwriter who appeared regularly on Canadian television programs such as Don Messer's Jubilee and Singalong Jubilee in the 1960s and '70s. He was best known for writing the songs Snowbird, which, in 1970, became the first major hit single for Anne Murray, and Put Your Hand in the Hand, a major hit for Ocean in 1971. Mr. MacLellan's own recordings included the singles The Call (1970) and Thorn in My Shoe (1970). He committed suicide by hanging himself at his home in Summerside, Prince Edward Island.

War
Russian forces captured Grozny, capital of the rebel republic of Chechnya. Russian President Boris Yeltsin removed three deputy defense ministers who had criticized the war.

Economics and finance
The United States Commerce Department reported that the U.S. trade deficit was $10.53 billion for November 1994.

Disasters
After being struck by lightning, the 2-man crew of Bristow Flight 56C, a helicopter carrying 16 oil workers from Aberdeen, Scotland to the Brae Alpha rig in the North Sea were forced to ditch. All 18 aboard were rescued.