October 17, 2015

170 years ago
1845

Born on this date
John J. Gardner. U.S. politician. Mr. Gardner, a Republican, served two terms as Mayor of Atlantic City (1868-1872, 1874-1875); was a member of the New Jersey Senate (1878-1893); and represented New Jersey's 2nd District in the U.S. House of Representatives (1893-1913). He died of heart disease on February 7, 1921 at the age of 75.

150 years ago
1865

Born on this date
James R. Garfield. U.S. politician. Mr. Garfield, the son of President James A. Garfield, was U.S. Secretary of the Interior in the administration of President Theodore Roosevelt from 1907-1909. Mr. Garfield died on March 24, 1950 at the age of 84.

130 years ago
1885

Football
ORFU
City Series
Ottawa 36 @ Peterboro 0
Hamilton 11 @ London 15

College Series
Queen's 7 @ Ottawa 22

Baseball
World Series
Chicago White Stockings 2 @ St. Louis Browns 3 (St. Louis led seven-game series 2-1-1)

The Browns scored 2 runs in the bottom of the 8th inning to edge the White Stockings before 3,000 fans at Sportsman's Park. Dave Foutz pitched an 8-hitter for the Browns to win the decision over Jim McCormick, who allowed 6 hits.

125 years ago
1890

Baseball
World Series
Brooklyn Bridegrooms 9 @ Louisville Colonels 0 (8 innings) (Brooklyn led best-six-of-ten series 1-0)

The National League champion Bridegrooms scored 3 runs in each of the 1st, 5th, and 7th innings as they whipped the American Association champion Colonels before 5,600 fans at Eclipse Park in a game that was called because of darkness after 8 innings. Adonis Terry was the winning pitcher over Scott Stratton.

120 years ago
1895

Born on this date
Miguel Ydígoras Fuentes. President of Guatemala, 1958–1963. General Ydígoras joined the Guatemalan army in 1915, and held various diplomatic and political posts until the dictatorship of President Jorge Ubico was overthrown in October 1944, forcing Gen. Ydígoras to live in diplomatic exile in Washington and then in London. He was linked to 25 coup attempts against President Juan José Arévalo from 1945-1951, and returned to Guatemala in 1950, founding the Partido Reconciliacion Democratica Nacional (National Democratic Reconciliation Party) (PRDN) and running unsuccessfully for President against Jacobo Árbenz. After Carlos Castillo Armas deposed Mr. Árbenz in a coup in 1954, Gen. Ydígoras was named Ambassador to Colombia. Mr. Castillo Armas was assassinated in 1957, and Gen. Ydígoras was elected President in 1958. His administration was plagued by corruption scandals and coup attempts, the last of which, led by Defense Minister Colonel Enrique Peralta Azurdia, proved successful. Gen. Ydígoras lived in exile in El Salvador before eventually returning to Guatemala, where he died on October 27, 1982, 10 days after his 87th birthday.

110 years ago
1905

Football
CRU
ORFU
The London football club dropped out of the Ontario Rugby Football Union, three days after losing 59-3 to the Tigers in Hamilton to drop to 0-2 for the season. A week earlier, the Tigers had won the season opener 49-3 in London. London defaulted their final four games of the season, two games against both the Toronto Argonauts and Toronto Victorias. The London club therefore finished with a record of 0-6, being outscored 108-6.

100 years ago
1915

Born on this date
Arthur Miller. U.S. playwright. Mr. Miller was best known for the plays All My Sons (1947); Death of a Salesman (1949); and The Crucible (1953). He was married to actress Marilyn Monroe from 1956-1960, and wrote the screenplay for The Misfits (1961), Miss Monroe's last completed film. Mr. Miller's marriage to Miss Monroe served as the basis for his play After the Fall (1964), which, with Incident at Vichy (1964) and other later works, failed to capture the acclaim of his earlier works. Mr. Miller died on February 10, 2005 at the age of 89.

90 years ago
1925

Football
CRU
ORFU
Toronto Balmy Beach (3-0) 13 @ Hamilton (1-2) 3
Camp Borden (2-1) 10 @ University of Toronto II (0-3) 2

75 years ago
1940

Discovered dead on this date
Willi Munzenberg, 50. German political activist. Mr. Munzenberg was Germany's leading Communist propagandist in the 1920s, but later grew disenchanted with Communism. He led anti-Nazi activities in France until his arrest and imprisonment in a camp in southern France. Mr. Munzenberg escaped in June, 1940, apparently headed toward Switzerland, and his whereabouts were unknown until French hunters deiscovered his partialyy-decomposed corpse in a forest. Mr. Munzenberg had been hanged or garotted, but whether he was murdered by Nazis or Communists remains uncertain.

70 years ago
1945

Born on this date
Happy Birthday, Dave Cutler! The Canadian Football Hall of Fame kicker with the Edmonton Eskimos (1969-1984), and this blogger's favourite player for many years, was born in Biggar, Saskatchewan.

Protest
Eight days after Juan Perón had resigned as Vice President of Argentina, and five days after he had been imprisoned on Martin Garcia island, a huge crowd of demonstrators gathered at Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires to demand his release. Colonel Perón was released, and that night, he told a crowd of 300,00 to disperse in peace. The event, commemorated in Argentina as Loyalty Day, marked the beginning of Col. Perón's presidential campaign, and is regarded as the founding of Peronism.

Politics and government
Archbishop Damaskinos of Athens became Prime Minister of Greece, between the pull-out of the German occupation force in 1944 and the return of King Georgios II to Greece.

60 years ago
1955

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

This was the 39th and last episode of the series.



50 years ago
1965

Americana
The 1964–65 New York World's Fair closed after a run of two six-month seasons. More than 51 million people attended the event, less than the hoped-for 70 million, and the World's Fair lost a considerable amount of money.

40 years ago
1975

Hit parade
#1 single in New Zealand: Wasted Days and Wasted Nights--Freddy Fender (5th week at #1)

#1 single in West Germany (Media Control): S O S--ABBA (6th week at #1)

#1 single in Switzerland: Dolannes-Melodie--Jean-Claude Borelly

Crime
On a flight from Memphis to San Diego, Norm Kimball, general manager of the Edmonton Eskimos of the Canadian Football League, was celebrating the team's acquisition of defensive tackle Bill Stevenson from the Memphis Southmen of the World Football League, and became so drunk and rowdy that the plane made an unscheduled stop at Phoenix to throw Mr. Kimball off the plane and into the hoosegow in Phoenix for the night.

Basketball
ABA
Pre-season
Virginia 100 @ Baltimore (0-3) 88

Skip Wise, Claude Terry and Bob Rhodes scored 12 points each for the Claws in their loss to the Squires before 500 fans at Knott Arena on the campus of Mt. St. Mary's College in Emmitsburgh, Maryland. Newly-acquired Dave Robisch was successful on just 1 of 6 field goals and scored 2 points in 26 minutes in his only game in a Baltimore uniform. This was the Claws' final game before the franchise was disbanded on October 20.

Football
CIAU
Saskatchewan (4-2) 20 @ Calgary (4-1) 37

WFL
The Memphis Southmen obtained defensive tackle Dave Costa from the Portland Thunder, and then traded defensive tackle Bill Stevenson to the Edmonton Eskimos of the Canadian Football League for two players to be named later.

The Hawaiians fired quarterbacks Rick Cassata and Sonny Sixkiller for leaving the team after refusing to accept a pay cut. The Hawaiians then signed quarterbacks Milt Holt and Jim Fassel.

30 years ago
1985

Hit parade
Canada's Top 17
1 Money for Nothing--Dire Straits
2 Dancing in the Street--Mick Jagger and David Bowie
3 Lonely Ol' Night--John Cougar Mellencamp
4 Crying Over You--Platinum Blonde
5 Boy in the Box--Corey Hart
6 Take on Me--A-Ha
7 Cherish--Kool & The Gang
8 Dress You Up--Madonna
9 Part-Time Lover--Stevie Wonder
10 Fortress Around Your Heart--Sting
11 Oh Sheila--Ready for the World
12 I'm Goin' Down--Bruce Springsteen
13 Don't Lose My Number--Phil Collins
14 Saving All My Love for You--Whitney Houston
15 Miami Vice Theme--Jan Hammer
16 Head Over Heels--Tears for Fears
17 Lovin' Every Minute of It--Loverboy

On television tonight
The Twilight Zone, on CITV
Tonight’s episode: Little Boy Lost, starring Season Hubley and Scott Grimes; Wish Bank, starring Dee Wallace-Stone; Nightcrawlers, starring Scott Paulin

Politics and government
Bettino Craxi resigned as Prime Minister of Italy after denouncing the United States for having forced an Egyptian airliner carrying the four Palestinian hijacker of the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro and their ringleader, Muhammed Abbas, to land in Sicily. Mr. Craxi also complained about the landing, without Italian permission, of two U.S. military transports carrying commandos.

Diplomacy
Yugoslavia rejected a request from the United States to extradite Mohammed Abbas to the U.S.A., saying that Mr. Abbas enjoyed diplomatic immunity as an official of the Palestinian Liberation Organization.

U.S. Senator Paul Laxalt, sent to the Philippines as a representative of President Ronald Reagan, concluded two days of talks with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos in which he had urged Mr. Marcos to institute some economic and political reforms. Mr. Laxalt reportedly conveyed U.S. concerns about growing Communist insurgency in the islands and about damage being done to the government by alleged widespread corruption within the military establishment and the government. On his return to the U.S., Sen. Laxalt said that Mr. Marcos had assured him that the Communist revolt was "manageable" and that U.S. observers could witness voting in upcoming elections in the Philippines.

Crime
A U.S. federal jury in Baltimore found Samuel Loring Morison, a former naval intelligence analyst, guilty of espionage for providing secret U.S. Navy photographs to the British magazine Jane’s Defence Weekly. He was also convicted of possessing secret Navy documents related to explosions at a Soviet naval ammunition depot. Jane’s had published the photographs, which showed a Soviet ship under construction. British intelligence obtained the photos from the magazine, and Mr. Morison’s thumbprint was found on one of them. Mr. Morison had obtained the documents while employed at the Naval Intelligence Support Center in Suitland, Maryland. His defense was based on the fact that he was but one of many officials who revealed unauthorized data in order to inform the public.

Economics and finance
The United States Commerce Department reported that, adjusted for inflation, the nation’s gross national product had risen at an annual rate of 3.3% in the third quarter of 1985.

25 years ago
1990

Hit parade
#1 single in Sweden (Topplistan): I've Been Thinking About You--Londonbeat (2nd week at #1)

Hockey
NHL
Quebec 8 @ Calgary 8

The Flames tied a National Hockey League record by scoring 2 goals, both shorthanded, in 4 seconds, as well as 3 goals in a 27-second span during the 3rd period to salvage the tie with the Nordiques at the Olympic Saddledome. With a player in the penalty box, Calgary pulled their goalie; Doug Gilmour scored at 19:45, then got the puck to Paul Ranheim on the ensuing face-off for the tying goal at 19:49.

Baseball
World Series
Oakland Athletics 4 @ Cincinnati Reds 5 (10 innings) (Cincinnati led best-of-seven series 2-0)

Joe Oliver singled in the winning run with 1 out in the bottom of the 10th inning as the Reds defeated the Athletics before 55,832 fans at Riverfront Stadium. The Athletics scored a run in the top of the 1st inning off Danny Jackson, but the Reds replied with 2 in the bottom of the inning off Bob Welch. Oakland scored 3 in the 3rd to knock Mr. Jackson out of the box after 2.2 innings, but four relief pitchers kept the Athletics off the scoreboard after that as the Reds scraped back to tie the game. Rob Dibble was the winning pitcher, and Dennis Eckersley, who entered the game at the start of the 10th inning, took the loss. Oakland's Jose Canseco hit the game's only home run. Cincinnati outfielder Billy Hatcher batted 4 for 4 to set a World Series record with 7 consecutive hits.



20 years ago
1995

Hit parade
#1 single in Italy: Boombastic--Shaggy

Hockey
NHL
The Montréal Canadiens fired general manager Serge Savard and head coach Jacques Demers after starting the 1995-96 season with five straight losses.

Basketball
NBA
The Toronto Raptors played their first pre-season game ever, against the Atlanta Hawks at SkyDome in Toronto.

Baseball
American League Championship Series
Cleveland 4 @ Seattle 0 (Cleveland won best-of-seven series 4-2)

Dennis Martinez allowed 4 hits in 7 innings, and Julian Tavarez and Jose Mesa each pitched a hitless inning of relief, as the Indians shut out the Mariners before 58,489 fans at the Kingdome to win their first AL pennant in 41 years. Cleveland center fielder Kenny Lofton singled in Alvaro Espinoza with the winning run in the 5th inning, and then singled, stole second base, and scored on a passed ball in the 8th. Seattle ace Randy Johnson started on the mound and allowed 8 hits and 4 runs--3 earned--while striking out 7 in 7.1 innings.



10 years ago
2005

Baseball
National League Championship Series
St. Louis 5 @ Houston 4 (Houston led best-of-seven series 3-2)

Lance Berkman hit a 3-run home run off Chris Carpenter to give the Astros a 4-2 lead in the bottom of the 7th inning, but with the Cardinals down to their last out in the series and nobody on base, David Eckstein singled and advanced to second base on defensive indifference, Jim Edmonds drew a base on balls, and Albert Pujols blasted a tremedous 3-run homer to give the Cardinals the win before 43,470 fans at Minute Maid Park. Mr. Pujols' homer, off Brad Lidge, hit the windows above the train track on top of the wall. Jason Isringhausen pitched 2 perfect innings to get the win in relief of Mr. Carpenter.