January 3, 2015

Born on this date
Happy Birthday, Gulbahar!

230 years ago
1795

Died on this date
Josiah Wedgwood, 64. U.K. potter. Mr. Wedgwood founded the Josiah Wedgwood and Sons pottery manufacturing company in 1759, and has been credited with industrializing the manufacture of pottery. He was an abolitionist, and mass-produced an anti-slavery medallion featuring the slogan, "Am I Not a Man and a Brother?" Mr. Wedgwood died of apparent cancer of the jaw.

200 years ago
1815

Defense
Austria, the United Kingdom, and France formed a secret defensive alliance against Prussia and Russia.

130 years ago
1885

War
In the Sino-French War, the Battle of Núi Bop began south of Lang Son in northern Vietnam.

90 years ago
1925

Politics and government
Benito Mussolini announced that he was taking dictatorial powers over Italy.

75 years ago
1940

War
The U.S. War Resisters' League charged that President Franklin D. Roosevelt's policies were aimed at putting the U.S.A. on a war footing. Finnish planes dropped leaflets over Leningrad depicting ill-equipped and freezing Soviet troops in Finland.

Defense
Australia commenced military training for 21-year-old males.

Politics and government
U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivered his State of the Union address to the opening session of the 76th Congress; he urged increased defense expenditures and warned against isolationism.

According to a Gallup Poll, 78% of registered Democrats favoured Mr. Roosevelt's nomination for an unprecedented third term as President in 1940.

The United States House of Representatives Committee on Un-American Activities (Dies Committee) accused the Communist Party and the German-American Bund of being anti-American.

Economics and finance
Field Marshal Hermann Goering was placed in charge of Germany's war economy.

U.S. President Roosevelt told the American Farm Bureau Federation that reciprocal trade agreements would not hurt U.S. farmers.

70 years ago
1945

Died on this date
Edgar Cayce, 67. U.S. psychic. Mr. Cayce was known as the "The Sleeping Prophet" because he delivered readings, recorded in many volumes, on various subjects while in a trance. His views in support of reincarnation led Christians to rightly view Mr. Cayce as a false prophet.

War
U.S. troops opened a drive against the German salient in Belgium. German counterattacks northwest of Budapest wrested several towns on the south bank of the Danube River from Soviet forces. Admiral Chester W. Nimitz was placed in command of all U.S. Naval forces in preparation for planned assaults against Iwo Jima and Okinawa in Japan. Carrier-based U.S. planes made simultaneous attacks on Formosa and Okinawa, sinking 25 Japanese ships and destroying 111 enemy aircraft. American troops in the Philippines landed unopposed at Buenavista on the southwest coast of Marinduque Island. U.K. and Indian troops occupied the west cost island port of Akyab, Burma without opposition. Chinese troops captured the Burma Road town of Wanting on the China-Burma border.

Politics and government
General Nikolaos Plastiras formed a new cabinet in Greece with himself as Prime Minister.

The 79th United States Congress convened with Sam Rayburn (Democrat--Texas) re-elected as Speaker of the House of Representatives. In an unexpected maneuver, the House voted to make permanent the House Committee on Un-American Activities; 137 Republicans and 70 Democrats voted in favour of the measure. Democratic and Republican National Committees reported to Congress that they had spent $2,056,121.58 and $2,828,651.56, respectively, in their 1944 election campaigns.

Economics and finance
Soviet Foreign Secretary Vyacheslav Molotov formally handed U.S. Ambassador to the U.S.S.R. Averell Harriman a request for a $6-billion postwar loan in the form of credit for manufactured goods.

Communications
A majority of the U.S. House of Representatives committee investigating the Federal Communications Commission issued a report passing favourable judgment on the agency. The report urged revision of the Communications Act of 1934 "to meet the developing needs of the radio industry."

60 years ago
1955

On television tonight
Sherlock Holmes, starring Ronald Howard and H. Marion Crawford
Tonight's episode: The Case of the Shoeless Engineer



50 years ago
1965

Football
NFL
Bert Bell Benefit Bowl (aka Playoff Bowl) @ Orange Bowl, Miami
St. Louis 24 Green Bay 17

Charley Johnson threw a pair of touchdown passes to Billy Gambrell and Jerry Stovall intercepted a Bart Starr pass and returned it for another TD to help the Cardinals defeat the Packers for official third-place standing before 56,218 fans. Mr. Gambrell was named the game's most valuable player. The Packers' loss prompted head coach Vince Lombardi to denounce the game as a "losers' bowl for losers" and "a hinky-dink football game, held in a hinky-dink town, played by hinky-dink players. That's all second place is – hinky dink."



40 years ago
1975

Hit parade
#1 single in New Zealand: You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet--Bachman-Turner Overdrive (3rd week at #1)

#1 single in West Germany (Media Control): Tränen Lügen Nicht--Michael Holm (2nd week at #1)

Ottawa's Top 30 (CFGO)
1 Kung Fu Fighting--Carl Douglas
2 When Will I See You Again--The Three Degrees
3 One Man Woman/One Woman Man--Paul Anka with Odia Coates
4 I Can Help--Billy Swan
5 Cat's in the Cradle--Harry Chapin
6 Junior's Farm--Paul McCartney & Wings
7 Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds--Elton John
8 Angie Baby--Helen Reddy
9 Laughter in the Rain--Neil Sedaka
10 I've Got the Music in Me--Kiki Dee Band
11 My Melody of Love--Bobby Vinton
12 You're the First, the Last, My Everything--Barry White
13 Only You--Ringo Starr
14 Sha-La-La (Make Me Happy)--Al Green
15 Never Can Say Goodbye--Gloria Gaynor
16 Everlasting Love--Carl Carlton
17 If--Telly Savalas
18 Linda Put the Coffee On--Ray Materick
19 Dancin' Fool--The Guess Who
20 Life is a Rock (But the Radio Rolled Me)--Reunion
21 Morning Side of the Mountain--Donny and Marie Osmond
22 Dark Horse--George Harrison
23 Mandy--Barry Manilow
24 You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet--Bachman-Turner Overdrive
25 Ramona--Stampeders
26 Please Mr. Postman--Carpenters
27 Free Bird--Lynyrd Skynyrd
28 Bungle in the Jungle--Jethro Tull
29 Ride 'Em Cowboy--Paul Davis
30 (Make Me Do) Anything You Want--A Foot in Coldwater

Died on this date
Lalit Narayan Mishra, 51. Indian politician. Mr. Mishra was Minister of Railways in the government of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi from 1973-1975. He was in Samastipur on January 2 to officially open the Samastipur-Muzaffarpur broad gauge line when a bomb exploded on the dais. He was rushed to the nearby railway hospital, but succumbed to his injuries.

Economics and finance
U.S. President Gerald Ford signed the Trade Reform Act, which linked most-favored-nation status for the U.S.S.R. to freer Soviet emigration policies.

30 years ago
1985

Weather
The temperature hit 46 F. in Edmonton.

Crime
In Toronto, Justice Samuel Grange released a 224-page report on baby deaths at the Hospital for Sick Children, saying that 8 of 36 babies who died between June 1980 and March 1981 were given deliberate overdoses of digoxin, a heart drug. He recommended that the province pay legal fees of Belleville nurse Susan Nelles, charged with four of the deaths, whose case had been thrown out for lack of evidence.

25 years ago
1990

Hit parade
#1 single in Sweden (Topplistan): Another Day in Paradise--Phil Collins (2nd week at #1)

War
Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega surrendered to U.S. authorities and agreed to give himself up after being assured that he would not face the death penalty. After leaving the Vatican’s diplomatic mission in Panama, where he had been since December 24, Gen. Noriega was taken to a U.S. military base in Panama City and arrested on drug-trafficking indictments by U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents.

Business
Merrill Lynch Canada sold its retail arm to Wood Gundy, Inc.

Hockey
NHL
Chicago 3 Edmonton 2

20 years ago
1995

War
For the second straight day, defenders of the Chechen capital of Grozny turned back a Russian attack on the city.

Economics and finance
In response to a sharp decline in the value of the peso, Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon proposed reductions in federal spending and a continuing 7% ceiling for wage increases.

10 years ago
2005

Died on this date
Will Eisner, 87. U.S. cartoonist and writer. Mr. Eisner was a pioneering artist and writer of comic books in a career that spanned more than 70 years, and was still active at the time of his death. He popularized the term "graphic novel. Mr. Eisner's works included The Spirit, a weekly insert in The Chicago Sun from 1940-1952. The annual Eisner Award for achievement in comic books is named in his honour.