December 11, 2015

540 years ago
1475

Born on this date
Leo X. Roman Catholic Pope, 1513-1521. Leo X, born Giovanni di Lorenzo de' Medici, was the second son of Lorenzo de' Medici, ruler of the Florentine Republic, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1489. He won the backing of the younger members of the Sacred College and was elected to succeed Pope Julius II. Pope Leo X patronized the arts, borrowed and spent money, and granted indulgences in order to finance the reconstruction of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. He also opposed the Protestant Reformation and issued the bull Exsurge Domine (1520), resulting in the excommunication of Martin Luther. Pope Leo X died suddenly of pneumonia on December 1, 1521, 10 days before his 46th birthday; he was succeeded on the papal throne by Adrian VI.

200 years ago
1815

Economics and finance
The U.S. Senate created a select committee on finance and a uniform national currency, predecessor of the United States Senate Committee on Finance.

175 years ago
1840

Died on this date
Kōkaku, 69. Emperor of Japan, 1780-1817. Kōkaku succeeded Go-Momozono on the throne, and abdicated in favour of his son Ninkō. Kōkaku was the first emperor in more than 200 years to remain on the throne past the age of 40.

125 years ago
1890

Born on this date
Carlos Gardel. French-born Argentine singer. Mr. Gardel, born Charles Gardes, was known as the "King of Tango" for his many hit recordings in that genre from 1917 until his death in a plane crash in Medellin, Colombia on June 24, 1935 at the age of 44.

110 years ago
1905

Politics and government
Charles May was elected Mayor of Edmonton, receiving 627 votes to 355 for Arthur Cushing. W.A. Griesbach, Robert Manson, Samuel Smith, and J.H. Picard were elected to two-year terms as aldermen.

90 years ago
1925

Politics and government
Manuel Teixeira Gomes, under pressure from the Nationalist Party, resigned as President of Portugal under the pretext of poor health; he went into exile six days later.

Religion
The Roman Catholic encyclical Quas primas of Pope Pius XI introduced the Feast of Christ the King.

Football
NFL
Chicago Cardinals (10-2-1) 59 Milwaukee (0-6) 0

The Badgers had already disbanded for the season, but hastily reassembled to play the Cardinals in a game ordered by NFL Commissioner Joe Carr in order to try to finish with a better winning percentage than the Pottsville Maroons, whom Mr. Carr was punishing for having scheduled an exhibition game against former University of Notre Dame all-stars for December 13 at Shibe Park in Philadelphia, violating the territorial rights of the Frankford Yellow Jackets. The Maroons had defeated the Cardinals 21-7 on December 6 to improve their record to 10-2 (.833).

75 years ago
1940

War
The Dutch destroyer Van Kingsbergen captured the German freighter Rhein, which had left Mexico on November 29. In a speech read for U.K. Ambassador to the United States Lord Lothian, he said that the outcome of the European war "now depends largely on" American aid.

Transportation
The U.S. State Department announced a formal agreement between the United States and Canada regarding reciprocal treatment in the operation of air services between the two countries.

Economics and finance
The United States Treasury issued $500 million in five-year "national defense notes" bearing 3/4% and subject to federal taxation.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Jesse Jones announced an Export-Import Bank credit of $60 million to Argentina and another credit of $7.5 million to Uruguay for purchases in the United States.

U.S. Secretary of State Cordell Hull indicated that the United States would not attempt to send food to Nazi-occupied countries, but would aid the destitute in unoccupied France, Spain, and "other free states."

The New York Stock Exchange rejected a request by the Securities and Exchange Commission that it rescind its order prohibiting members from multiple trading on outside or regional exchanges.

Horse racing
Turf and Sports Digest's annual poll named Challeton as Horse of the Year for the second time.

Football
NCAA
The Lambert Trophy, symbolic of Eastern supremacy, was presented to Boston College representatives at a dinner in New York City.

70 years ago
1945

War
At the Nazi war crimes trial in Nuremberg, a memorandum from the files of Alfred Rosenberg was introduced that showed that German Fuehrer Adolf Hitler had ordered the seizure of 40,000-50,000 Polish and Russian youths aged 10-14 in 1944 for shipment to Germany to work as apprentices.

The Nationalist radio station of Java declared, "we are all determined to annihilate" all Dutch troops "even if we have to poison them to death."

Politics and government
The election of General Eurico Gaspar Dutra as President of Brazil was announced.

U.S. Secretary of State James Byrnes also outlined the aims of U.S. occupation of Germany: increase coal exports to liberated countries; prevent mass starvation; reach agreement on industrial reparations; and speed up organization of German administration in production and trade.

U.K. Prime Minister Clement Attlee told the House of Commons that Newfoundland, which had lost dominion status in 1933 for failure to pay its debts, had regained the right of self-government, and that a national assembly would be elected soon.

The All-India Congress working committee adopted a resolution reiterating its faith in non-violence and praising the pro-Japanese "Indian National Army."

Energy
U.S. State Secretary Byrnes said that he would urge the calling of a general peace conference and creation of a United Nations commission on atomic energy at the meeting of foreign ministers in Moscow.

Academia
U.S. Education Commissioner John Studebaker reported that college and university enrollment in the fall of 1945 had reached 950,000, an increase of 200,000 from 1944, compared to the peak of 1,400,000 in 1939.

Economics and finance
The United States Senate voted in favour of a $700-million federal aid bill for hospital and health centre construction over the next five years.

Labour
The United States House of Representatives voted 200-182 to block consideration of a bill to penalize unions for violating no-strike contracts and barring unions from contributing to political activities. The U.S. steelworkers' union threatened a nationwide strike if its $2-per-day wage demand was not met.

Baseball
The Pacific Coast League's demand to be recognized as a third major league was rejected at the annual major league meetings in Chicago.

60 years ago
1955

On television tonight
Alfred Hitchcock Presents, on CBS
Tonight's episode: Guilty Witness, starring Judith Evelyn and Kathleen Maguire

50 years ago
1965

Hit parade
#1 single in Australia (Kent Music Report): The Carnival is Over--The Seekers (2nd week at #1)

#1 single in France: Mon Cœur d'attache--Enrico Macias

#1 single in Italy (FIMI): La festa--Adriano Celentano (2nd week at #1)

#1 single in West Germany (Media Control): Marmor, Stein und Eisen bricht--Drafi Deutscher (2nd week at #1)

#1 single in the Netherlands (De Nederlandse Top 40): Yesterday--The Beatles (5th week at #1)

#1 single in the U.K. (New Musical Express): Day Tripper/We Can Work It Out--The Beatles

#1 single in the U.S.A. (Billboard): Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There is a Season)--The Byrds (2nd week at #1)

U.S.A. Top 10 (Cash Box)
1 Let's Hang On--The 4 Seasons
2 I Hear a Symphony--The Supremes
3 Taste of Honey--Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass
4 Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There is a Season)--The Byrds
5 I Got You (I Feel Good)--James Brown and the Famous Flames
6 Over and Over--The Dave Clark Five
7 1-2-3--Len Barry
8 I Can Never Go Home Anymore--Shangri-Las
9 Rescue Me--Fontella Bass
10 Fever--The McCoys

Singles entering the chart were Just Like Me by Paul Revere and the Raiders (#72); Lies by the Knickerbockers (#82); Under Your Spell Again by Johnny Rivers (#84); Just One More Day by Otis Redding (#86); Attack by the Toys (#87); Go Away from My World by Marianne Faithfull (#88); Are You There (With Another Girl) by Dionne Warwick (#89); Sandy by Ronny and the Daytonas (#92); Broomstick Cowboy by Bobby Goldsboro (#95); Love (Makes Me Do Foolish Things) by Martha and the Vandellas (#97); (You Got) The Mama Goochee by the Kingsmen (#98); Uptight (Everything’s Alright) by Stevie Wonder (#99); I Ain't Gonna Eat Out My Heart Anymore by the Young Rascals (#100); Stay Away from My Baby by Ted Taylor (also #100); and Please Don't Fight It by Dino, Desi and Billy (also #100).

U.S.A. Top Ten (Sound Format)
1 Let's Hang On--The 4 Seasons (3rd week at #1)
2 Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There is a Season)--The Byrds
3 Over and Over--The Dave Clark Five
4 1-2-3--Len Barry
5 England Swings--Roger Miller
6 I Will--Dean Martin
7 You've Got to Hide Your Love Away--The Silkie
8 May the Bird of Paradise Fly Up Your Nose--"Little" Jimmy Dickens
9 Puppet on a String--Elvis Presley
10 Make it Easy on Yourself--The Walker Bros.

Singles entering the chart were The Little Girl I Once Knew by the Beach Boys (#17); Crawling Back by Roy Orbison (#24); and Mother Nature, Father Time by Brook Benton (#25).

40 years ago
1975

Died on this date
Lee Wiley, 67. U.S. singer. Miss Wiley was a jazz singer who was popular from the 1930s through the 1950s. She performed with the bands of Leo Reisman and Paul Whiteman and the Casa Loma Orchestra before achieving success on her own. Miss Wiley died of colon cancer.

War
An Icelandic gunboat opened fire on unarmed British fishery support vessels in the North Atlantic Sea.

Politics and government
The Social Credit Party, led by Bill Bennett--the son of former Premier W. A. C. Bennett--won the British Columbia provincial election, defeating the incumbent New Democratic Party government of Premier Dave Barrett that had been in power since August 1972, when they had ended the 20-year reign of the elder Bennett. The SCs captured 35 of 55 seats in the Legislative Assembly, up from 10 in 1972. The NDP won 18 seats, down from 38. Liberal Party leader Gordon Gibson was the only member of his party to win a seat, and Progressive Conservative Party leader George Scott Wallace was the only member of his party to win a seat.

Spanish Prime Minister Carlos Arias Navarro formed a new, more moderate cabinet.

Economics and finance
The United States Senate voted in favour of banking reform.

Baseball
The day after obtaining first baseman Jim Spencer from the Texas Rangers, the California Angels traded him and outfielder Morris Nettles to the Chicago White Sox for third baseman Bill Melton and pitcher Steve Dunning. Mr. Spencer had batted .266 with 11 home runs and 47 runs batted in in 132 games with Texas in 1975, while Mr. Nettles had hit .231 with no home runs and 23 RBIs in 112 games with the Angels and .191 with no homers and 1 RBI in 13 games with the Salt Lake City Gulls of the AAA Pacific Coast League. Mr. Melton, who had become the first White Sox player to lead the American League in home runs in a season when he hit 33 in 1971, had been bothered by a bad back in recent years, batting .240 with 15 home runs and 70 runs batted in in 149 games in 1975. Mr. Dunning had spent the 1975 season with the Denver Bears of the AAA American Association, posting a record of 15-9 with an earned run average of 3.49 in 28 games.

The Angels also traded center fielder Mickey Rivers and pitcher Ed Figueroa to the New York Yankees for right fielder Bobby Bonds. Mr. Rivers had batted .284 with 1 home run and 53 runs batted in in 1975, while leading the American League with 70 stolen bases. Mr. Figueroa was 16-13 with a 2.90 ERA in 33 games with California in 1975. Mr. Bonds, who had been acquired by the Yankees a year earlier from the San Francisco Giants in a trade for outfielder Bobby Murcer, batted .270 with 32 home runs, 85 runs batted in, and 30 stolen bases in 145 games in his only season with New York. He got off to a good start, but suffered a leg injury making a game-saving catch on June 7, and played injured the rest of the year.

The Yankees also traded George "Doc" Medich to the Pittsburgh Pirates for pitchers Dock Ellis and Ken Brett and second baseman Willie Randolph. Mr. Medich, a medical student at the time, posted a record of 16-16 with a 3.51 earned run average in 38 games with New York in 1975. Mr. Ellis was 8-9 with a 3.79 ERA in 27 games with Pittsburgh, while the much-travelled Mr. Brett was 9-5, 3.36 in 23 games. Mr. Randolph batted .164 with no home runs and 3 runs batted in in 30 games with the Pirates in 1975 and 0 for 2 in 2 games in the National League Championship Series after batting .339 with 7 homers and 42 RBIs in 91 games with the Charleston Charlies of the AAA International League.

30 years ago
1985

Politics and government
Two months after winning the Progressive Conservative party leadership and becoming Premier of Alberta, Don Getty won a by-election in Edmonton-Whitemud to rejoin the legislature after many years away from electoral politics. This blogger voted for him, and it was the last time I voted for that party.

Filipino Senator Salvador Laurel agreed to serve as a vice-presidential candidate on a ticket headed by Corazon Aquino in the election scheduled for February 7, 1986. Mr. Laurel had announced his candidacy for the presidency on December 9, but accepted Mrs. Aquino’s offer in exchange for her agreement to run as a candidate of Mr. Laurel’s party, the United Nationalist Democratic Party (UNIDO). Government corruption, the state of the economy, and the Communist insurgency were expected to be issues in the campaign.

Economics and finance
The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished above 1,500 for the first time.

Oil
The governments of Great Britain and Norway disappointed the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries by saying that they would not reduce their nations’ oil output.

Business
General Electric Company agreed to buy Radio Corporation of America for $6.28 billion in the biggest merger yet to take place outside the oil industry. RCA was the fourth-largest supplier of weapons to the U.S. government, but also led the nation in sales of television sets, and had the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) as part of its empire. GE had helped found RCA in 1919 and the companies had worked together in developing radio technology, but they were separated by a court order in 1933. The U.S. Justice Department and Federal Communications Commission would have to approve the merger.

Hockey
NHL
Chicago 9 @ Edmonton 12

The Oilers defeated the Black Hawks at Northlands Coliseum as the teams tied the league record of 21 goals in a game and set a new National Hockey League record for total individual points in a game of 62--36 by Edmonton, 26 by Chicago.

25 years ago
1990

Diplomacy
Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir met with U.S. President George Bush at the White House. Mr. Bush gave assurances that the United States would not tie Iraq’s withdrawal from Kuwait to any proposal to resolve the issue of Palestinians in the Middle East.

Protest
Demonstrations by students and workers across Albania began, eventually triggering the fall of communism there.

Society
Michael Williams. assistant U.S. secretary of education for civil rights, disclosed that his department regarded college scholarships set aside exclusively for minorities as discriminatory and therefore in violation of federal civil rights law.

Environment
The Canadian government of Prime Minister Brian Mulroney unveiled its Green Plan, a five-year, $3 billion effort to clean up the nation’s land, air, and water. The plan was based largely on programs already in place, but the $3 billion was "fresh, new money," according to Environment Minister Robert de Cotret. The goals of the program included reducing air pollution by 40% over the next 10 years; cutting federal waste by 50% over the same period; and developing a joint effort with the United States to prevent pollution in the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River. Critics charged that the plan was too vague in its goals and allocations and had been announced solely as an attempt to boost Mr. Mulroney’s sagging popularity.

20 years ago
1995

Hit parade
#1 single in Spain (PROMUSICAE): Nirvana--Viva (2nd week at #1)

#1 single in Norway (VG-lista): Gangsta's Paradise--Coolio featuring L.V. (9th week at #1)

#1 single in Germany (Media Control): Earth Song--Michael Jackson

Canada's Top 10 (RPM)
1 Hand in My Pocket--Alanis Morissette (2nd week at #1)
2 Name--Goo Goo Dolls
3 Blessed--Elton John
4 Runaway--Janet Jackson
5 Fantasy--Mariah Carey
6 Back for Good--Take That
7 I Wish You Well--Tom Cochrane
8 Your Little Secret--Melissa Etheridge
9 Breakfast at Tiffany's--Deep Blue Something
10 Let it Rain--Amanda Marshall

Singles entering the chart were Enough Love by Kim Stockwood (#90); Miss Sarajevo by U2 and Brian Eno featuring Luciano Pavarotti (#91); Earth Song by Michael Jackson (#92); Dreaming of You by Selena (#93); Staying Alive by N-Trance (#96); and Rolling Thunder by Rita MacNeil (#97).

Died on this date
Greg Bahnsen, 47. U.S. clergyman. Dr. Bahnsen was a minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church who was a staunch Calvinist and a leader in the Christian Reconstruction movement, which believes that society should be constructed, or reconstructed, according to biblical law. He was especially known for his promotion of theonomy, the idea of government imposition of biblical law, including Old Testament laws and punishments. Dr. Bahnsen's eschatology was postmillennial, meaning that he believed that the preaching and influence of the gospel of Jesus Christ will result in His kingdom being established on Earth, and that the Lord Jesus Christ will then come back t take over the kingdom that's been established in His name. Dr. Bahnsen's views were controversial among Christians, and led to his dismissal fro Reformed Theological Seminary. He suffered from lifelong medical problems, including heart trouble, and died from complications of aortic valve implant surgery.

Terrorism
Basque separatists claimed responsibility for a bomb that killed 8 people and wounded 18 in Madrid.

Politics and government
The Canadian House of Commons passed a resolution recognizing Québec as a distinct society within Canada.

Canadiana
A plebiscite resulted in Iqaluit being chosen as the capital of Nunavut Territory, effective April 1, 1999.

Labour
A one-day general strike took place in London, Ontario to protest changes in Ontario labour laws, spending cuts, and a proposed bill to enlarge the powers of the provincial government.

10 years ago
2005

Protest
Thousands of white Australians demonstrated against ethnic violence, resulting in a riot against anyone thought to be Lebanese (and many who were not) in Cronulla, New South Wales. These were followed up by retaliatory ethnic attacks on Cronulla.

Environment
A huge fire continued to burn at the Buncefield oil depot in Hertfordshire, England after a series of explosions early in the morning.