February 14, 2015

225 years ago
1790

Died on this date
Capel Bond, 59. U.K. musician and composer. Mr. Bond was a church organist whose most notable compositions were Six Concertos in Seven Parts (1766) and Six Anthems in Score (1769).

200 years ago
1815

War
British forces occupied the Ceylonese city of Kandy.

170 years ago
1845

Died on this date
Joseph Lakanal, 82. French politician. Mr. Lakanal was a rhetoric professor before becoming a member of the National Convention of the French Republic (1792-1795), and the Committee of Public Instruction (1793). In 1795, he was elected to the Council of Five Hundred, and was a founding member of the Institut de France. Mr. Lakanal retired to the United States after the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, and the U.S. Congress granted him 500 acres to found the Vine and Olive Colony, a settlement of expatriate French Bonapartists in Alabama. Mr. Lakanal returned to France in 1834.

160 years ago
1855

Communications
Texas was linked by telegraph to the rest of the United States, with the completion of a connection between New Orleans and Marshall, Texas.

120 years ago
1895

Born on this date
Wilhelm Burgdorf. German military officer. General of the Infantry Burgdorf was a commander and staff officer in the Wehrmacht during World War II. In October 1944, he assumed the role of the Chief of the Army Personnel Office and Chief Adjutant to Fuehrer Adolf Hitler. Gen. Burgdorf played a role in the forced suicide of Gen. Erwin Rommel in October 1944, and committed suicide by shooting himself in the Fuehrerbunker in Berlin on May 2, 1945 at the age of 50, two days after the suicide of Mr. Hitler, and the day after the suicide of Mr. Hitler's successor, Josef Goebbels.

Max Horkheimer. German-born philosopher and sociologist. Dr. Horkheimer was a cultural Marxist and member of Frankfurt University's Institute of Social Research--popularly known as the "Frankfurt School"--and was known for his work in critical theory, the application of knowledge from social sciences and humanities to change power structures in various aspects of society. His best known book was Eclipse of Reason (1947). Dr. Horkheimer fled Germany after the Nazis came to power and eventually settled in the United States, becoming an American citizen in 1940. Dr. Horkheimer returned to the University of Frankfurt in 1949, teaching there until the mid-1960s. He died in Nuremberg on July 7, 1973 at the age of 78.

Theatre
Oscar Wilde's final play, The Importance of Being Earnest, opened at St. James's Theatre in London.

100 years ago
1915

Born on this date
Irving Gordon. U.S. songwriter. Mr. Gordon, born Israel Goldener, wrote popular songs from the 1930s through the '50s; his best-known song was Unforgettable (1951). He died on December 1, 1996 at the age of 81.

War
The First Canadian Division arrived in France from England, and moved into Flanders.

75 years ago
1940

Died on this date
Gilbert Morgan. U.K. chemist. Sir Gilbert was an authority on synthetic chemistry and dyestuffs.

War
The U.S.S.R. reported that her forces had made further advances in the Summa section of Finland. The Japanese government claimed control of enough territory to create a Japanese-supported regime in central China led by Wang Ching-wei, and asked Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek to surrender.

Diplomacy
Panama received a German note rejecting the 300-mile security zone plan of the American republic.

World events
British Colonial Secretary Malcolm MacDonald said that the Jewish immigration quota for Palestine would not be increased in the foreseeable future.

Labour
New York Governor Herbert Lehman signed the Perry bill, making it illegal for labour union officials to engage in any sort of racial or religious discrimination.

70 years ago
1945

War
A report from London said that German radio had urged Germans to "cast overboard our last scruples" and "kill, murder, and poison" Allied troops. The British Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Forces began fire-bombing Dresden, the capital of the German state of Saxony. In their drive on Berlin and Dresden, Soviet forces captured seven major German strongholds: Neustaedtel; Neusalz; Freystadt; Sprottau; Goldberg; Jauer; and Striegau. A Navigational error leads to the mistaken bombing of Prague by an American squadron of B-17s assisting in the Soviets' Vistula–Oder offensive. Mostar is liberated by Yugoslav partisans. Forces of the U.S. 6th Army attacked the Japanese garrison of Fort McKinley in southeastern Manila. Other American units in the Philippines began clearing operations on the Bataan peninsula, the first of moves intended to reopen Manila Bay. Chinese forces broke the Japanese hold on the Canton-Hankow railroad with the capture of Pingshek, 165 miles north of Canton.

Diplomacy
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden arrived in Athens as martial law in Greece ended and all sentnces passed by military courts in their trials of rebel ELAS supporters were annulled.

U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt met with King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia aboard USS Quincy, officially beginning U.S.-Saudi diplomatic relations.

A conference of Arab leaders opened in Cairo to consider a federation plan including Egypt, Arab Palestine, Iraq, Syria, Transjordan, and Saudi Arabia.

Chinese Nationalists and Communists met to negotiate their differences, with the aid of U.S. Ambassador Patrick Hurley.

Crime
A U.S. military commission at Governors Island, New York found William Colepaugh and Erich Gimpel guilty of espionage, and sentenced them to death.

Law
The United States Justice Department filed a petition asking the Supreme Court to assume jurisdiction in the Montgomery Ward case. U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt had recently ordered the Army to seize seven Montgomery Ward and Company properties in Chicago and Detroit because of the company's refusal to comply with National War Labor Board orders, but on January 27, Federal Court Judge Philip Sullivan had ruled in Chicago that the seizure was illegal. The U.S. government had then decided to take its case to the Circuit Court of Appeals.

Journalism
The students of the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia accepted a proposal for partial faculty supervision of the student newspaper The Flat Hat. Publication had been suspended three days earlier because of an editorial by Marily Kaemmerle which suggested that the time would come for interracial education, social contacts, and marriage.

Labour
U.S. Economic Stabilization Director Fred Vinson ordered the Army and Navy to cancel contracts with E.A. Laboratories, Inc. because it had failed to comply with a National War Labor Board order.

60 years ago
1955

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



War
Chinese Communist forces invaded and overran the Tachen Islands in Formosa.

40 years ago
1975

Hit parade
#1 single in New Zealand: I Can Help--Billy Swan (2nd week at #1)

#1 single in West Germany (Media Control): Griechischer Wein--Udo Jürgens (2nd week at #1)

#1 single in Switzerland: I Can Help--Billy Swan (3rd week at #1)

Ottawa's Top 30 (CFGO)
1 Mandy--Barry Manilow (3rd week at #1)
2 Please Mr. Postman--Carpenters
3 Doctor's Orders--Carol Douglas
4 Bungle in the Jungle--Jethro Tull
5 Get Dancin'--Disco Tex and the Sex-O-Lettes
6 Best of My Love--The Eagles
7 Changes--David Bowie
8 Morning Side of the Mountain--Donny and Marie Osmond
9 Pick Up the Pieces--AWB
10 Black Water--The Doobie Brothers
11 You Beat Me to the Punch--Charity Brown
12 I Wouldn't Want to Lose Your Love--April Wine
13 Dancin' Fool--The Guess Who
14 Lady Marmalade--LaBelle
15 Never Can Say Goodbye--Gloria Gaynor
16 Boogie On Reggae Woman--Stevie Wonder
17 Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds--Elton John
18 Have You Never Been Mellow--Olivia Newton-John
19 You're No Good--Linda Ronstadt
20 Some Kind of Wonderful--Grand Funk
21 Lonely People--America
22 Roll on Down the Highway--Bachman-Turner Overdrive
23 Sweet Surrender--John Denver
24 Up in a Puff of Smoke--Polly Brown
25 #9 Dream--John Lennon
26 Tell Your Mother--Downchild Blues Band
27 My Eyes Adored You--Frankie Valli
28 Nightingale--Carole King
29 Coochie Coochie Coo--The Hudson Brothers
30 Can You Give it All to Me--Myles and Lenny

Died on this date
P.G. Wodehouse, 93. U.K.-born U.S. author. Sir Pelham Grenville wrote novels, plays, and songs. He was best known for his humourous stories about a rich man named Bertie Wooster and his valet Jeeves.

Julian Huxley, 86. U.K. biologist. Sir Julian, like his grandfather Thomas Huxley, was a great admirer of Charels Darwin and a prominent advocate of Darwinian evolution. Sir Julian was the first Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) from 1946-1948; co-founded the World Wildlife Fund; was the first president of the British Humanist Association; and was president of the British Eugenics Society from 1959-1962. He was an effective popuarlizer of science, and helped to bring the works of Jesuit paleontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, the "Father of the New Age," to the English-speaking public.

Music
The Ike & Tina Turner Review performed at the Edmonton Gardens.

The local band Sunshine performed at a Valentine's Day sock hop, at which this blogger was in attendance, during lunch hour at Sir John Franklin Territorial High School in Yellowknife. The band performed such songs as Knockin' on Heaven's Door; She Got it On (their own composition); Theme from Shaft; and Takin' Care of Business.

Track and field
Francie Larrieu of the United States set a world record in the women's 1,500-metre run, covering the distance in 4:10.4 at a meet in Toronto.

Baseball
The Montreal Expos traded pitcher Craig Caskey to the St. Louis Cardinals for infielder Stan Papi. Mr. Caskey had posted a record of 12-9 with an earned run average of 3.59 in 28 games with the Memphis Blues of the AAA International League. Mr. Papi had played shortstop and second base with the Tulsa Oilers of the AAA American Association in 1974, batting .188 with 3 home runs and 22 runs batted in, and in 8 games with the Cardinals, batting .250 (1 for 4) with 1 RBI.

25 years ago
1990

Hit parade
#1 single in Sweden (Topplistan): Jimmy Dean--Troll (2nd week at #1)

Died on this date
Jean Wallace, 66. U.S. actress. Miss Wallace, born Jean Walasek, appeared in about 20 movies, including Jigsaw (1949); The Big Combo (1955); and Storm Fear (1955), the latter two of which starred her then-husband Cornel Wilde. She died of a gastrointestinal hemorrhage.

Tony Holiday, 38. West German singer. Mr. Holiday, born Rolf Peter Knigge, had several hit singles on the West German and Austrian charts from 1977-1980. He was a sodomite who died of AIDS, 10 days before his 39th birthday.

Halina Dudzic, 27. Canadian woman. Miss Dudzic, an Edmonton resident who had been disabled in a car accident years earlier and was unable to speak, was dropped off at her house by the Disabled Adult Transportation Service driver, who drove off before making sure that Miss Dudzic had been able to get inside safely. Miss Dudzic, who lived alone, had forgotten her keys, and there were no neighbours nearby. She was unable to break into the house, and was found the next day, frozen to death. News of her death saddened everyone who’d had the privilege of meeting her; shortly before moving into her house, Miss Dudzic had been a neighbour of this blogger. I met her a few times, and I remember her well. The Halina Dudzic Memorial Awards are handed out every year by Sturgeon Composite High School in Namao, Alberta. The student in each grade with the highest mark in English receives a cash award and a copy of Tiny But Tuff, a book of Miss Dudzic’s poetry that was published by her family in 1993.

Space
The Voyager 1 probe took the photograph of planet Earth that later become famous as Pale Blue Dot.

Politics and government
The Liberal-dominated Canadian Senate sent the Progressive Conservative government’s unemployment insurance legislation back to the House of Commons, saying it was a bad piece of legislation that needed major changes before it could be approved. The legislation would overhaul the current system, cutting benefits by $1.3 billion annually by tightening eligibility requirements and reducing benefits, especially in those areas of the country with lower unemployment rates. The bill, which would also extend maternity benefits and cover workers over the age of 65 for the first time, was passed by the P.C. majority in the House of Commons in November 1989. Liberal Senator Jacques Hebert described the bill as "a demolition operation designed to destroy the present unemployment insurance plan."

Disasters
An Indian Airlines passenger jet, Flight 605, crashed while preparing to land at Bangalore, killing 92 of the 146 people aboard.

Hockey
NHL
Washington 4 Edmonton 3

20 years ago
1995

War
Mexican President Ernest Zedillo Once de Leon ordered a halt to the Mexican army's offensive against Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) rebels in the state of Chiapas, and said he would ask Congress to approve an amnesty for rebels who disarmed.

Crime
In a vote that largely went along party lines, the Republican-controlled United States House of Representatives voted 238-192 to defeat a bill from President Bill Clinton for $30 billion to fight crime, including $8 billion to hire 100,000 new police officers and $6 billion for crime prevention programs. The House voted in favour of $10 billion in block grants to local authorities to use as they saw fit to fight crime.

10 years ago
2005

Died on this date
Dick Weber, 75. U.S. bowler. Mr. Weber, with Don Carter, was regarded as bowling's first superstar. He was one of the founders of the Professional Bowlers Association in 1958, and won 30 PBA tour events--including four major tournaments--and six Senior Tour events. Mr. Weber died of apparent respiratory failure, just after returning from a United States Bowling Congress (USBC) meeting in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Rafik Hariri, 60. Prime Minister of Lebanon, 1992-1998; 2000-2004. Mr. Hariri, a self-made billionaire and business tycoon, was leader of the Future Movement. He had resigned as Prime Minister on October 20, 2004, and was killed, along with 22 others, when explosives, equivalent of around 1,800 kilograms of TNT, were detonated as his motorcade drove past the St. George Hotel in downtown Beirut.

Terrorism
7 people were killed and 151 wounded in a series of bombings by suspected al-Qaeda-linked terrorists that hit the Philippines' Makati financial district in Metro Manila, Davao City, and General Santos City.

Technology
YouTube was launched by a group of American college students, eventually becoming the largest video sharing website in the world and a main source for viral videos.