January 30, 2016

210 years ago
1806

Transportation
The original Lower Trenton Bridge (also called the Trenton Makes the World Takes Bridge), spanning the Delaware River between Morrisville, Pennsylvania and Trenton, New Jersey, was opened.

200 years ago
1816

Born on this date
Nathaniel P. Banks. U.S. politician. Mr. Banks was a member of several political parties during his career, and represented Massachusetts in the United States House of Representatives from 1853-1857; 1865-1873; 1875-1879; and 1889-1891, serving as the Speaker of the House from 1856-1857. He was Governor of Massachusetts from 1858-1861. Mr. Banks became a Major General in the Union Army during the U.S. Civil War. He died on September 1, 1894 at the age of 78.

190 years ago
1826

Transportation
The Menai Suspension Bridge, considered the world's first modern suspension bridge--connecting the Isle of Anglesey to the north West coast of Wales--was opened.

175 years ago
1841

Born on this date
Félix Faure. 7th President of France, 1895-1899. Mr. Faure, a moderate republican, was first elected to the National Assembly in 1881, and held various cabinet posts before being elected President following the resignation of Jean Casimir-Perier. He granted amnesty to anarchist movements, but refused to intervene in the treason conviction of Captain Alfred Dreyfus, thus attracting criticism from French intellectuals and others. President Faure died in office on February 16, 1899, 17 days after his 58th birthday, of a fit of apoplexy while having sex with his mistress, sparking much ribald humour.

Disasters
A fire destroyed two-thirds of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico.

160 years ago
1856

Transportation
The first Grand Trunk Railway train arrived in Guelph from Toronto.

150 years ago
1866

Born on this date
Gelett Burgess. U.S. writer. Mr. Burgess was an important figure in the San Francisco Bay Area literary renaissance of the 1890s, known for his humourous writing in various books and in his magazine The Lark (1895-1897). His most notable work was probably the short poem The Purple Cow (1895). Mr. Burgess created cartoon characters called the Goops, which appeared in a comic strip (1924-1925) and in seven books (1900-1951). He spent many years in France, and introduced French Cubist art to the United States in his essay The Wild Men of Paris (1910). Mr. Burgess died on September 18, 1951 at the age of 85.

90 years ago
1926

Died on this date
Barbara La Marr, 29. U.S. actress. Miss La Marr, born Reatha Dale Watson, was known as "The Girl Who is Too Beautiful." She starred in silent movies, including The Nut (1921); The Three Musketeers (1921); and The Prisoner of Zenda (1922). Miss La Marr was married five times, and became addicted to drugs and alcohol, which led to her death.

75 years ago
1941

War
British troops captured Derna, Libya. German Fuehrer Adolf Hitler warned that American ships carrying aid to the United Kingdom would be sunk.

Defense
The U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee voted 17-8 in favour of an amended Lend-Lease bill.

Technology
Radio Corporation of America officials described a new and simplified electron microscope that magnified objects up to 100,000 times.

Economics and finance
Brazilian President Getulio Vargas signed a decree creating the National Steel Corporation.

Business
The U.S. War Department awarded a $10-million truck contract to a Chrysler affiliate despite a lower bid from Ford Motor Company, because Ford refused to comply with federal, state, and local labour laws.

A U.S. federal grand jury indicted six companies and nine officials for operating an international magnesium trust since 1927. Two German firms were included.

70 years ago
1946

War
At the hearings of the United States Senate committee on the December 7, 1941 Japanese attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, Captain A.H. McCollum testified that as head of U.S. Navy intelligence in 1941, he never saw a Japanese "winds code" message, signifying war against the United States.

Diplomacy
British authorities in Palestine announced that pending the Anglo-American Inquiry Committee's decisions, 1,500 Jewish immigrants per month would be permitted to enter Palestine.

The United Nations Security Council voted to return the Iranian dispute to Iran and the U.S.S.R. for settlement by direct negotiation, but "retains the right to request information on [their] progress."

Politics and government
The Iraqi cabinet of Prime Minister Hamdi el Paccechi resigned as a result of Regent Prince Abdul Illah's demand for social reforms.

Argentine presidential candidate Juan Peron said in Buenos Aires that he would not attempt a coup, and charged that the U.S. embassy was involvedin smuggling arms into Argentina.

U.S. Senator Harry Byrd (Democrat--Virginia) said that the United States should follow the Soviet example of control over the Kurile Islands and oppose any United Nations trusteeship of vital islands captured by the U.S.

Economics and finance
The U.K. House of Commons passed a bill nationalizing the coal industry and creating a nine-man board within the Fuel and Power Ministry to manage it.

U.S. President Harry Truman urged Congress to adopt a $4.4-billion credit to the United Kingdom for postwar economic adjustments.

60 years ago
1956

Terrorism
American Negro civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.'s home in Montgomery, Alabama was bombed in retaliation for the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

50 years ago
1966

Economics and finance
The Canadian government of Prime Minister Lester Pearson announced that over 100,000 Canadians aged 69 were now eligible for the $75 Old Age Security pensions.

40 years ago
1976

Hit parade
#1 single in New Zealand: S O S--ABBA

#1 single in West Germany (Media Control): Moviestar--Harpo

#1 single in Switzerland: Dolannes-Melodie--Jean-Claude Borelly (16th week at #1)

30 years ago
1986

Hit parade
Edmonton's Top 18 (CHED)
1 That's What Friends are For--Dionne and Friends (with Elton John, Gladys Knight & Stevie Wonder)
2 So Far Away--Dire Straits
3 Spies Like Us--Paul McCartney
4 Talk to Me--Stevie Nicks
5 Everything in My Heart--Corey Hart
6 It's Only Love--Bryan Adams and Tina Turner
7 Burning Heart--Survivor
8 Tarzan Boy--Baltimora
9 When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Going--Billy Ocean
10 My Hometown--Bruce Springsteen
11 I'm Your Man--Wham!
12 Live is Life--Opus
13 Conga--Miami Sound Machine
14 Rock Me Amadeus--Falco
15 Take Me Home--Phil Collins
16 Say You, Say Me--Lionel Richie
17 Cosmetics--Gowan
18 Go Home--Stevie Wonder

On television tonight
The Twilight Zone, on CITV
Tonight’s episode: The Elevator, starring Stephen Geoffreys and Robert Prescott; To See the Invisible Man, starring Cotter Smith; Tooth and Consequences, starring David Birney

Diplomacy
Jonas Savimbi, leader of the anti-Communist Angolan rebel group UNITA, met with U.S. President Ronald Reagan in Washington. The two men called for a negotiated settlement of the civil war in that country.

Scandal
Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Erik Nielsen, who had been a Progressive Conservative (Yukon) member of the House of Commons since 1958, admitted that he had secretly listened in on Liberal Party caucus meetings during the 1960s.

25 years ago
1991

Hit parade
#1 single in Sweden (Topplistan): Sadeness Part I--Enigma (3rd week at #1)

On television tonight
The Wonder Years, on ABC
Tonight’s episode: Denial

Died on this date
John McIntire, 83. U.S. actor. Mr. McIntire was a character actor who appeared in movies such as The Asphalt Jungle (1950); Winchester '73 (1950); and The Phenix City Story (1955), and had regular roles in the television series Naked City (1958-1959) and Wagon Train (1961-1965).

John Bardeen, 82. U.S. physicist. Dr. Bardeen is the only person to have won the Nobel Prize in Physics twice: in 1956 with Walter Brattain and William Shockley "for their researches on semiconductors and their discovery of the transistor effect;" and in 1972 with Leon Cooper and John Schrieffer "for their jointly developed theory of superconductivity, usually called the BCS-theory."

War
11 U.S. Marines were reported killed as troops from the U.S.A., Saudi Arabia, and Qatar retaliated against Iraq’s seizure of the Saudi town of Al Khafji the previous day. Seven of the U.S. deaths were from "friendly fire" from a U.S. warplane. U.S. General Norman Schwarzkopf said that the air campaign was on schedule, with two weeks of bombing forcing Iraq to abandon centralized control of its air defense. Canada began military operations in Operation Friction; a Canadian CF-18 Hornet attacked and caused irreparable damage to an Iraqi warship.

Economics and finance
The United States Commerce Department reported that the index of leading economic indicators had edged upward 0.1% in December 199, ending a string of six monthly declines.

Business
The Hudson's Bay Company announced that it was selling its fur business due to declining sales and auction competition; the HBC was originally founded as a fur trading company in 1670.

20 years ago
1996

Scandal
The Colombian congress was called into an emergency session to review allegations that President Ernesto Samper Pizano had knowingly accepted campaign donations from the Cali drug cartel; Mr. Samper denied the charges despite the resignation of government officials and ambassadors in protest.

10 years ago
2006

Died on this date
Coretta Scott King, 78. U.S. civil rights activist. Mrs. King was the wife of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., from 1953 until his assassination on April 4, 1968. She participated with him in his work and continued civil rights advocacy after his death.

Business
Fairmont Hotels and Resorts announced that a group of investors including Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal had agreed to buy the luxury hotel chain for about $3.3 billion in cash and some $600 million in assumed debt.