March 16, 2015

Born on this date
Happy Birthday, Kathy Fisher and Tatyana!

825 years ago
1190

Abominations
A massacre of 150 local Jews took place in a pogrom at Clifford's Tower, the keep of York Castle, York, England.

200 years ago
1815

Europeana
Prince Willem proclaimed the Netherlands a kingdom and himself King Willem I of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands.

175 years ago
1840

Born on this date
Shibusawa Eiichi, 1st Viscount Shibusawa. Japanese businessman. Mr. Eiichi was known as the "Father of Japanese capitalism," founding hundreds of corporations as well as the First National Bank. He died on November 11, 1931 at the age of 91.

150 years ago
1865

Born on this date
Patsy Donovan. U.K.-born U.S. baseball player and manager. Mr. Donovan, a native of Ireland, was a right fielder with seven major league teams from 1890-1907, batting .300 with 16 home runs and 736 runs batted in in 1,821 games. He led the National League in stolen bases with 45 in 1900, while playing with the St. Louis Cardinals. Mr. Donovan managed five major league teams from 1897-1911, compiling a record of 684-879-34 (.438). Mr. Donovan managed the Buffalo Bisons to International League pennants in 1915 and 1916. He died on December 25, 1953 at the age of 88.

War
In the U.S. Civil War, the Battle of Averasborough took place in North Carolina. The result was inconclusive, but the Confederate Army suffered a higher proportion of casualties.

100 years ago
1915

War
The Second Canadian Division began to arrive in England for service in World War I.

80 years ago
1935

Died on this date
J.J.R. Macleod, 58. U.K. physician and physiologist. Dr. Macleod, a native of Scotland, moved to the United States and then to Canada, where he worked with Frederick Banting, Charles Best, and James Collip on the discovery of insulin. Drs. Banting and Macleod shared the 1923 Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology for the discovery.

Defense
German Fuehrer Adolf Hitler cancelled the military clauses of the Treaty of Versailles. Conscription was reintroduced to form the Wehrmacht.

75 years ago
1940

Died on this date
Selma Lagerlöf, 81. Swedish authoress. Miss Lagerlöf was known for novels such as Gösta Berling's Saga (1891) and Nils Holgerssons underbara resa genom Sverige (The Wonderful Adventures of Nils) (1907). She became the first woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, winning in 1909 "in appreciation of the lofty idealism, vivid imagination and spiritual perception that characterize her writings."

James Isbister. U.K. war casualty. Mr. Isbister was the first person killed in a German bombing raid on the United Kingdom in World War II, during a raid on Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands.

Diplomacy
In an international radio broadcast, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt said that a European peace must rest on the right of small nations to be free from threats of large nations.

The U.S. State Department announced that 21 nations of the Western Hemisphere had protested to the United Kingdom her violation of Brazil's safety zone in the recent British seizure of the German freighter Wakama.

World events
British Colonial Secretary Malcolm MacDonald told the House of Commons that restrictions on land sales to Jews in Palestine were designed to prevent trouble throughout the Arab world.

70 years ago
1945

At the movies
The House of Fear, starring Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Doctor Watson, opened in theatres.



Died on this date
Börries von Münchhausen, 70. German poet. Mr. Münchhausen published numerous collections of poetry from the late 1890s through the 1930s. He wrote in the German Romantic tradition of fascination with the Middle Ages and German legends. Mr. Münchhausen originally expressed a favourable attitude toward Zionism, and expressed admiration for those he regarded as elite Jews, but as his popularity faded following World War I, he became increasingly reactionary, and supported the Nazis after they came to power in 1933. Mr. Münchhausen committed suicide with an overdose of sleeping pills, four days before his 71st birthday, as Allied forces approached his estate of Windischleuba.

War
The United States War Department announced that U.S. citizens of Japanese ancestry would have to take a special oath forswearing "allegiance or obedience to the Japanese Emperor" before being accepted into the United States Army. U.S. troops began closing pincers on German forces in the Saar Basin. 90% of Würzburg, Germany was destroyed, and 5,000 killed, in only 20 minutes of attacks by British bombers. French officials announced that purge courts had handed down 679 death sentences against war criminals, including Jacques Schweitzer, a close associate of former German Ambassador Otto Abetz. Major General Harry Schmidt, commander of U.S. Marines on Iwo Jima, declared that the island was secure, although small pockets of Japanese resistance persisted.

World events
A plot to overthrow the Cuban government of President Ramón Grau was broken up with the arrest of 40 conspirators, including former army chief of staff Colonel Jose Pedraza.

Labour
The United Mine Workers of America rejected a contract offer by soft coal operators that would have raised weekly earnings by $1.69.

60 years ago
1955

Hockey
NHL
National Hockey League President Clarence Campbell suspended right wing Maurice "Rocket" Richard of the Montreal Canadiens for the remainder of the regular season and the entire Stanley Cup playoffs for an incident on March 13 in a game against the Boston Bruins at Boston Garden in which Mr. Richard, after being hit with a high stick by Boston defenceman Hal Laycoe, struck Mr. Laycoe in the face and shoulders with his stick and then knocked out linesman Cliff Thompson with a punch. Mr. Richard had been given a match penalty and an automatic $100 fine, while Mr. Laycoe got a 5-minute major penalty plus a 10-minute misconduct for the high stick. Mr. Richard had slapped a linesman in the face three months earlier and had been fined $250.

50 years ago
1965

On television tonight
The Fugitive, starring David Janssen, on ABC
Tonight's episode: May God Have Mercy, with guest stars Telly Savalas, Carol Rossen, Norman Fell, and Maggie Pierce

40 years ago
1975

Died on this date
T-Bone Walker, 64. U.S. musician. Aaron Thibeaux "T-Bone" Walker was a prominent blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter in a career that lasted more than 40 years. His most famous song was Call it Stormy Monday (But Tuesday is Just as Bad) (1947).

Hockey
NHL
Buffalo 11 @ Toronto 3

Rick Martin and Gilbert Perreault each scored 3 goals and Rick Dudley added 2 as the Sabres routed the Maple Leafs before 16,485 fans in a rare Sunday night game at Maple Leaf Gardens in the weekly CBC radio broadcast. Don Luce, Fred Stanfield, and Peter McNab scored the other Buffalo goals as the Sabres set a team record for goals in a game. Blaine Stoughton, Dave Keon, and Jim McKenny scored for Toronto. Gerry Desjardins, recently acquired after departing the World Hockey Association's Baltimore Blades, made 29 saves in goal for Buffalo. Gord McRae and Doug Favell split the Toronto goaltending, facing 46 shots.

30 years ago
1985

Hit parade
#1 single in Italy (FIMI): Una Storia Importante--Eros Ramazzotti

#1 single in Flanders (Ultratop 50): Shout--Tears for Fears (3rd week at #1)

#1 single in the Netherlands (De Nederlandse Top 40): This is Not America--David Bowie and the Pat Metheny Group

#1 single in Ireland (IRMA): You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)--Dead or Alive

#1 single in the U.K.: You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)--Dead or Alive (2nd week at #1)

#1 single in the U.S.A. (Billboard): Can't Fight This Feeling--REO Speedwagon (2nd week at #1)

U.S.A. Top 10 (Cash Box)
1 Can't Fight This Feeling--REO Speedwagon
2 Careless Whisper--Wham!
3 California Girls--David Lee Roth
4 The Heat is On--Glenn Frey
5 Sugar Walls--Sheena Easton
6 One More Night--Phil Collins
7 Easy Lover--Philip Bailey (with Phil Collins)
8 Material Girl--Madonna
9 Too Late for Goodbyes--Julian Lennon
10 Lovergirl--Teena Marie

Singles entering the chart were That was Yesterday by Foreigner (#23); Some Things are Better Left Unsaid by Daryl Hall John Oates (#35); Some Like it Hot by Power Station (#38); Don't Come Around Here No More by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers (#44); Rock and Roll Girls by John Fogerty (#61); Everybody Wants to Rule the World by Tears for Fears (#79); Invisible by Alison Moyet (#82); and In My House by Mary Jane Girls (#90).

Canada's top 10 (RPM)
1 Neutron Dance--Pointer Sisters
2 I Want to Know What Love Is--Foreigner
3 Easy Lover--Philip Bailey (with Phil Collins)
4 Careless Whisper--Wham! featuring George Michael
5 Solid--Ashford & Simpson
6 One More Night--Phil Collins
7 You're the Inspiration--Chicago
8 The Heat is On--Glenn Frey
9 Shout--Tears for Fears
10 California Girls--David Lee Roth

Singles entering the chart were Crazy for You by Madonna (#70); Don't Come Around Here No More by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers (#86); Forever Man by Eric Clapton (#91); What About Me by Belinda Metz (#94); and We Close Our Eyes by Go West (#97).

Died on this date
Roger Sessions, 88. U.S. composer. Mr. Sessions wrote nine symphonies and numerous other works. He won a special Pulitzer Prize in 1974 for "his life's work as a distinguished American composer," and won the 1982 Pulitzer Prize for Music for Concerto for Orchestra.

Eddie Shore, 82. Canadian-born U.S. hockey player and coach. Mr. Shore, a native of Fort Q'Appelle, Northwest Territories (now in Saskatchewan), was a defenceman who played professionally with the Regina Capitals (1924-25); Edmonton Eskimos (1925-26); Boston Bruins (1926-40); New York Americans (1940); Springfield Indians (1940-42); and Buffalo Bisons (1943-44). In 550 NHL regular season games, he scored 105 goals and 179 assists, and added 6 goals and 13 assists in 55 playoff games. Mr. Shore played on Stanley Cup championship teams in 1929 and 1939, and won the Hart Trophy as the National Hockey League's Most Valuable Player four times (1933; 1935; 1936; 1938), a record for defencemen. As his playing career wound down, Mr. Shore moved to the American Hockey League, owning and coaching the Springfield Indians, who moved to Buffalo and became the Bisons from 1942-1944. Mr. Shore won Calder Cup championships with the Bisons in 1943 and 1944, and with the Indians in 1960; 1961; 1962; 1971; and 1975. He sold the team and retired in 1976. Mr. Shore was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame as a charter member in 1947, and into the American Hockey League Hall of Fame as a charter member in 2006.

Weather
It was a beautiful day in Edmonton, reaching 54 F.

Music
Stage Band Festival 1985 took place at the Jasper Place campus of Grant MacEwan Community College in Edmonton. This blogger was in attendance.

Terrorism
U.S. journalist Terry Anderson, of Associated Press, was kidnapped in Beirut; he was not released until December 4, 1991, after 2,454 days in captivity.

25 years ago
1990

Economics and finance
In Mexico City Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney signed 10 bilateral agreements with Mexico and discussed free trade with Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari.

Labour
Canadian Transport Minister Doug Lewis announced random drug and alcohol testing for workers in safety-sensitive jobs, affecting up to 250,000 workers in air, rail, ship, bus and trucking companies.

Hockey
NHL
Toronto 4 @ Buffalo 3

20 years ago
1995

Hit parade
#1 single in Finland (Musiikkituottajat – IFPI Finland): Everytime You Touch Me--Moby

Law
Mississippi formally ratified the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, becoming the last state to approve the abolition of slavery. The Thirteenth Amendment was officially ratified in 1865. Mississippi's ratification wasn't certified until February 7, 2013.

Economics and finance
The United States Labor Department reported that consumer prices had risen 0.3% in February.

10 years ago
2005

Died on this date
Dick Radatz, 67. U.S. baseball pitcher. Mr. Radatz, nicknamed "The Monster" because of his size (6' 6", 230 pounds) and fastball, was a relief pitcher with the Boston Red Sox (1962-1966); Cleveland Indians (1966-1967); Chicago Cubs (1967); Detroit Tigers (1969); and Montreal Expos (1969), compiling a record of 52-43 with an earned run average of 3.80 and 122 saves in 381 games. He was one of the best relievers in the major leagues in his first three seasons, but his career declined after he added a sinker to his repertoire of pitches, and he altered his mechanics. Mr. Radatz died after falling down a flight of stairs.

Todd Bell, 46. U.S. football player. Mr. Bell was a safety with the Chicago Bears (1981-1984, 1986-1987) and a linebacker with the Philadelphia Eagles (1988-1989). He was known as a hard hitter, and was named to play in the Pro Bowl after the 1984 season. Mr. Bell died of a heart attack while driving his car.

World events
Israel officially handed the city of Jericho over to Palestinian control.

Crime
In Redwood City, California, Judge Alfred A. Delucchi sentenced Scott Peterson to death for the December 24, 2002 murder of his 27-year-old pregnant wife Laci.