February 3, 2016

Born on this date
Happy Birthday, Louise Taylor!

900 years ago
1116

Died on this date
Coloman, 45 or 46. King of Hungary, 1095-1116; King of Croatia, 1097-1116. Coloman succeeded his uncle Ladislaus I on the Hungarian throne. In 1097, Coloman led an invasion of Croatia and took the throne when King Petar Svačić was killed in the Battle of Gvozd Mountain. King Coloman was succeeded as King of Hungary and Croatia by his son Stephen II.

150 years ago
1866

Died on this date
François-Xavier Garneau, 56. Canadian historian. Mr. Garneau was best known for his three-volume Histoire du Canada depuis sa découverte jusqu'à nos jours (History of Canada: From the Time of its Discovery Till the Union Year) (1845-1852).

100 years ago
1916

Died on this date
B.B. Law, 60. U.S.-born Canadian politician. Bowman Brown Law, a Liberal, was born in Douglas, Massachusetts, and moved with his family to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia at an early age, and represented the city in the House of Commons from 1902 until his death in the fire in the centre block of the Parliament Buildings.

Disasters
Fire broke out in the Centre Block of the Canadian Parliament Buildings in Ottawa at 8: 50 pm during a debate; by midnight, the main tower was ablaze, yet the clock was still able to strike 12. The gothic Parliamentary Library was saved by a quick thinking clerk, who closed the iron doors. Seven people died in the blaze: Nova Scotia MP B. B. Law, caught in a telephone booth; Assistant Clerk J. B. LaPlante, who refused to slide down a rope to safety; Mme. Bray and Mme. Morin, guests of the Speaker's wife, Mme. Sevigny, who went back to fetch their furs and were overcome by smoke; Dominion policeman Alphonse Desjardins, who went back into the inferno after rescuing one MP - he and his nephew and Randolph Fanning were buried when a floor collapsed. The tragedy was widely blamed on German wartime saboteurs; 1,200 soldiers were sent to guard Parliament Hill, and police arrest a 28-year-old Belgian musician, but nothing is proven. Parliament moved to the Victoria Memorial Museum at the foot of Metcalfe Street, the House of Commons holding its sessions in the lecture hall, and the Senate, according to a report, was accommodated in the apartment set apart for fossils and extinct leviathans, which has not escaped the notice of certain humourists. The Centre Block was rebuilt in the Gothic revival style, and completed in 1920.

Labour
French-speaking teachers in Ontario protested a pay freeze, imposed after they refused language restrictions; the strike by 122 teachers closed 17 bilingual schools in Ontario.

75 years ago
1941

War
German Fuehrer Adolf Hitler approved the final version of Operation Barbarossa, the plan for the German invasion of Russia.

Politics and government
Cuban President Fulgencio Batista took ove personal command of Cuba's armed forces and suspended civil rights for 15 days.

U.S. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt refused to speak to the American Youth Congress because of its opposition to the military draft and aid to the United Kingdom.

Economics and finance
Officials said that Japan would not abandon her program of economic penetration of the Netherlands East Indies despite Dutch protests.

Labour
The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously upheld the constitutionality of the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act, the wage-hours law. The U.S. Federal Court of Appeal ruled that the National Labor Relations Board lacked the legal right to police relations between an employer and his employees under a collective bargaining agreement.

Football
NFL
Elmer Layden resigned as head coach at the University of Notre Dame in order to accept a five-year contract as Commissioner of the National Football League.

70 years ago
1946

Died on this date
E. Phillips Oppenheim, 79. U.K. author. Mr. Oppenheim wrote more than 100 novels from 1887-1943; the only one I've read is The Zeppelin's Passenger (1918).

Television
The Columbia Broadcasting System demonstrated colour broadcasting, and claimed that the system would be available to the public by 1947.

Abominations
At the trial in Nuremberg of accused Nazi war criminals, SS leader Heinrich Himmler's secret papers revealed that he had ordered his former lover and her physician husband murdered in order to conceal medial experiments that had been performed on Jews and Roman Catholic priests.

Diplomacy
U.K. special envoy Sir Archibald Clark Kerr conferred in Batavia, Netherlands East Indies with NEI Prime Minister Sjahrir and Dutch Governor van Mook.

Greek Public Order Minister Stamatis Mercuris denied Soviet charges of right-wing excesses in Greece.

Protest
Residents of Westchester County, New York and Fairfield County, Connecticut protested to U.S. President Harry Truman and the Governors of New York and Connectiut against plans to locate the United Nations in their communities.

Politics and government
Acting Chilean President Alfredo Duhalde formed a new centrist cabinet, which legalized two unions in an attempt to avert a renewed general strike called by the Labour Federation.

Law
Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers in Japan General Douglas MacArthur named Massachusetts Chief Justice John Higgins as the American representative on the International Military Tribunal for the Far East.

Defense
The United States Army Air Force revealed development of a plane with automatic devices controlling takeoff, flight, and landing, leaving the crew only to monitor equipment.

Aviation
A Trans World Airlines Constellation set a commercial record by flying from Burbank, California to New York City in 7 hours 52 minutes.

Medicine
The Journal of the American Medical Association charged that indiscriminate use of foot remedies resulted in "chemical abuse," and that most were worthless.

Sport
Bob Fitzgerald won the men's title and Elaine Gordon won the women's title at the U.S. speed skating championships in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Golf
Jimmy Demaret won the Tucson Open.

60 years ago
1956

Hit parade
#1 single in the U.K. (New Musical Express): Sixteen Tons--"Tennessee" Ernie Ford (3rd week at #1)

At the movies
The Killer is Loose, directed by Budd Boetticher and starring Joseph Cotten, Rhonda Fleming, and Wendell Corey, opened in theatres.



Died on this date
Johnny Claes, 39. U.K.-born Belgian auto racing driver. Mr. Claes participated in 25 Formula One races from 1950-1955, with best finishes of seventh in the Monaco Grand Prix in 1950 and the Belgian Grand Prix in 1951. He died of tuberculosis.

Business
The Imperial Bank of Canada was permitted to merge with Barclays Bank (Canada).

50 years ago
1966

Hit parade
#1 single in the U.K. (Record Retailer): Michelle--The Overlanders (2nd week at #1)

Died on this date
June Walker, 66. U.S. actress. Miss Walker was primarily a stage actress, and had a Broadway career spanning 40 years. She was the first actress to play Lorelei Lee in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1926). Miss Walker appeared in several movies and numerous television programs.

Space
The unmanned Soviet Luna 9 spacecraft made the first controlled rocket-assisted landing on the Moon.

The United States launched Essa 1, first of the satellites of the Tiros Operational Satellite (TOS) system, from Cape Kennedy, Florida.

Abominations
Canadian Prime Minister Lester Pearson banned all imports of Rhodesian goods, and all exports of Canadian goods to Rhodesia, with limited exceptions.

40 years ago
1976

Abominations
Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau continued his 12-day tour of Venezuela, Mexico, and Cuba with a visit to Havana and Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. Mr. Trudeau hailed Mr. Castro with the words "Viva Castro!"

Diplomacy
Daniel Patrick Moynihan resigned as chief U.S. representative to the United Nations.

30 years ago
1986

Hit parade
#1 single in Australia (Kent Music Report): We Built This City--Starship (3rd week at #1)

#1 single in Spain (PROMUSICAE): p:Machinery--Propaganda

Disasters
U.S. President Ronald Reagan named an independent commission to investigate the January 28 explosion of the space shuttle Challenger that had killed all 7 aboard. The commission’s chairman was former Secretary of State William Rogers, and the vice-chairman was former astronaut Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon.

Religion
Pope John Paul II visited Mother Teresa in Calcutta and visited her refuge for the sick and dying.

25 years ago
1991

Hit parade
#1 single in New Zealand (RIANZ): I'll Be Your Baby Tonight--Robert Palmer and UB40

#1 single in Switzerland: Sadeness Part I--Enigma (8th week at #1)

Austria's Top 10 (Ö3)
1 Unchained Melody--The Righteous Brothers
2 Keep on Running--Milli Vanilli
3 Sadeness Part I--Enigma
4 Hello Afrika--Dr. Alban featuring Leila K.
5 I'll Be Your Baby Tonight--Robert Palmer and UB40
6 Fantasy--Black Box
7 Ice Ice Baby--Vanilla Ice
8 To Love Somebody--Jimmy Somerville
9 The Joker--Steve Miller Band
10 Justify My Love--Madonna

Singles entering the chart were A Better Love by Londonbeat (#22); It's a Shame (My Sister) by Monie Love featuring True Image (#26); and Being Boring by Pet Shop Boys (#30).

Died on this date
Nancy Kulp, 69. U.S. actress. Miss Kulp was best known for playing Jane Hathaway in the television comedy series The Beverly Hillbillies (1962-1971). She died of cancer.

Politics and government
The Israeli cabinet of Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir approved admitting the Modelet (Homeland) party to the government’s ruling coalition. Modelet advocated expelling all Palestinians from the occupied territories.

Football
NFL
Pro Bowl @ Aloha Stadium, Honolulu
AFC 23 NFC 21

The American Football Conference outscored the National Conference 17-7 in the 4th quarter to win before 50,345 fans. New Orleans Saints' kicker Morten Andersen's field goal attempt in the final seconds was blocked, preserving the win for the AFC. Quarterback Jim Kelly of the Buffalo Bills was named the game's most valuable player.



20 years ago
1996

Hit parade
#1 single in Australia (ARIA): Boombastic--Shaggy

#1 single in Flanders (VRT): Knockin'--Double Vision (5th week at #1)

#1 single in Wallonia (Ultratop 40): Gangsta's Paradise--Coolio featuring L.V. (10th week at #1)

#1 single in France (SNEP): Gangsta's Paradise--Coolio featuring L.V. (10th week at #1)

#1 single in the Netherlands (De Nederlandse Top 40): I Got 5 on It--Luniz

#1 single in the U.K. (BMRB): Spaceman--Babylon Zoo (2nd week at #1)

U.S.A. Top 10 (Billboard)
1 One Sweet Day--Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men (10th week at #1)
2 Exhale (Shoop Shoop)--Whitney Houston
3 Missing--Everything But the Girl
4 One of Us--Joan Osborne
5 Hey Lover--LL Cool J
6 Name--Goo Goo Dolls
7 Breakfast at Tiffany's--Deep Blue Something
8 Be My Lover--La Bouche
9 Before You Walk Out of My Life/Like This and Like That--Monica
10 Nobody Knows--The Tony Rich Project

Singles entering the chart were Everyday and Everynight by Yvette Michele (#69); Who Do U Love by Deborah Cox (#74); Leflaur Leflah Eshkushka by Heltah Skeltah and O.G.C. as the Fab Five (#80); and Daughter/Yellow Ledbetter by Pearl Jam (#97).

U.S.A. Top 10 (Cash Box)
1 One Sweet Day--Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men (8th week at #1)
2 Missing--Everything But the Girl
3 Exhale (Shoop Shoop)--Whitney Houston
4 Hey Lover--LL Cool J
5 Name--Goo Goo Dolls
6 Nobody Knows--The Tony Rich Project
7 One of Us--Joan Osborne
8 Be My Lover--La Bouche
9 Breakfast at Tiffany's--Deep Blue Something
10 Tonite's Tha Night--Kris Kross

Singles entering the chart were Feels So Good (Show Me Your Love) by Lisa Santiago (#61); All Cried Out by Denine with Collage’s Adam Marano (#83); and Who Do U Love by Deborah Cox (#90).

Died on this date
Audrey Meadows, 73. U.S. actress. Miss Meadows, born Audrey Cotter, appeared in numerous television programs, but was best known for playing Alice Kramden in The Honeymooners, a series of sketches in The Jackie Gleason Show in the 1950s and '60s, and a series on its own in 1955-1966, as well as several specials in the late 1970s. Miss Meadows married her second husband, Continental Airlines president Bob Six, in 1961; she was an advisory director of the airline (1961-1981), and was director of First National Bank in Denver for 11 years. Miss Meadows was a longtime smoker, and died from lung cancer, five days before her 74th birthday.

Disasters
An earthquake measuring 7.0 on the Richter scale struck the Chinese province of Yunna, killing 250 people, injuring 15,000, and leaving hundreds of thousands homeless.

10 years ago
2006

Died on this date
Al Lewis, 82. U.S. actor. Mr. Lewis, born Albert Meister, was best known for playing Grandpa Munster in the television comedy series The Munsters (1964-1966).

Disasters
An Egyptian passenger ferry sank in the Red Sea during bad weather, killing more than 1,000 passengers.