February 6, 2016

Born on this date
Happy Birthday, Bob Powless!

210 years ago
1806

War
British forces commanded by Vice-Admiral Sir John Thomas Duckworth defeated French forces commanded by Contre-Amiral Corentin Urbain Leissègues in the naval Battle of San Domingo in the Caribbean Sea.

80 years ago
1936

Olympics
The 4th Winter Olympic Games opened in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, with 28 nations and 755 competitors.

75 years ago
1941

War
British and Australian troops commanded by Lieutenant General Sir Archibald Wavell captured Benghazi, Libya.

Defense
The Lorne Scots (Peel Dufferin and Halton Regiment) were founded as a unit of the Canadian Army in Brampton, Ontario.

The U.S. House of Representatives voted 148-141 for an amendment to the Lend-Lease bill giving Congress the power to repeal it by a simple majority vote.

Diplomacy
U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt nominated John G. Winant as U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom.

Japanese Ambassador to the United States Kichisaburō Nomura arrived in San Francisco.

The River Plate Conference ended in Montevideo with the five participating Latin American nations agreeing on economic matters and signing 26 regional pacts.

Law
The government of Romania decreed a new criminal code which doubled prison terms for Communists, Jews, and non-Romanians.

Labour
U.S. Navy Secretary Frank Knox listed 127 strikes in defense industries during 1940, with 100 now settled.

Medicine
U.S. food and drug commissioner W.G. Campbell reported that there was no known substance which could be relied upon to cure colds.

70 years ago
1946

War
At the trial in Manila of accused Japanese war criminals, Japanese Army Lieutenant General Masaharu Homma admitted "moral" responsibility for the acts of his subordinates and for giving the order for the Bataan "death march."

Diplomacy
The United Nations Security Council closed the Greek issue after Soviet representative Andrey Vishinsky withdrew the U.S.S.R. charge that British troops in Greece were endangering world peace, and U.K. Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin withdrew his request that the Council acquit Britain of the accusation.

Britannica
Sarawak, a privately-owned dominion in northern Borneo rich in oil and other raw materials, was ceded to Britain by "White Rajah" sir Charles Brooke.

Law
The United Nations General Assembly and Security Council elected 15 jurists to serve on the new International Court of Justice.

Space
Reuters reported from Rome that astronomers at Castel Gandolfo Observatory had discovered a new comet twice as big as the Sun.

Economics and finance
All 18 nations attending a United Maritime Authority conference in London agreed on cooperative action to meet the shipping needs of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration.

In putting into effect a food conservation program, U.S. President Harry Truman warned that the world faced a food crisis unprecedented in modern times.

40 years ago
1976

Hit parade
#1 single in New Zealand: Convoy--C.W. McCall

#1 single in West Germany (Media Control): Mamma Mia--ABBA

#1 single in Switzerland: Mamma Mia--ABBA

Died on this date
Vince Guaraldi, 47. U.S. musician. Mr. Guaraldi, born Vincent Dellaglio, was a jazz pianist and composer from San Francisco. He was known for leading the Vince Guaraldi Trio as they achieved success with the recordings of the single Cast Your Fate to the Wind (1963); music from the film Black Orpheus; and the scores for the animated Peanuts television specials from 1965 until Mr. Guaraldi's death from a heart attack between sets during a gig at at Butterfield's Nightclub in Menlo Park, California.

Crime
American Indian Movement (AIM) activist Leonard Peltier, wanted in the United States for first degree murder in the shooting of two Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents during a 1975 conflict on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, was arrested at Smallboys Camp in Alberta. Although Mr. Peltier denied his guilt, he was sentenced to life in prison by an American court.

Scandal
In testimony before a United States Senate subcommittee, Lockheed Corporation president Carl Kotchian admitted that the company had paid out approximately $3 million in bribes to the office of Japanese Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka.

Australian postal and telecommunications minister Victor Garland resigned over bribery charges, which were later dismissed.

Boxing
Duane Bobick (34-0) won a 10-round unanimous decision over Larry Middleton (22-7-2) in a heavyweight bout at Madison Square Garden in New York.

30 years ago
1986

Hit parade
Edmonton's Top 30 (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 Tarzan Boy--Baltimora
6 When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Going--Billy Ocean
7 Live is Life--Opus
8 Rock Me Amadeus--Falco
9 My Hometown--Bruce Springsteen
10 I'm Your Man--Wham!
11 Everything in My Heart--Corey Hart
12 Conga--Miami Sound Machine
13 It's Only Love--Bryan Adams and Tina Turner
14 Burning Heart--Survivor
15 Cosmetics--Gowan
16 The Sweetest Taboo--Sade
17 Kyrie--Mr. Mister
18 Go Home--Stevie Wonder
19 Life in a Northern Town--The Dream Academy
20 Sara--Starship
21 How Will I Know--Whitney Houston
22 Take Me Home--Phil Collins
23 King for a Day--Thompson Twins
24 There was a Time--One to One
25 Say You, Say Me--Lionel Richie
26 Living in America--James Brown
27 These Dreams--Heart
28 This Could Be the Night--Loverboy
29 The Sun Always Shines on TV--A-Ha
30 Silent Running--Mike & the Mechanics

On television tonight
The Twilight Zone, on CITV
Tonight’s episode: Welcome to Winfield, starring Gerrit Graham; Quarantine, starring Scott Wilson

At the movies
De aanslag (The Assault) opened in theatres in the Netherlands.





Died on this date
Dandy Nichols, 78. U.K. actress. Miss Nichols, born Daisy Sander, was best known for her co-starring role as Else Garnett in the television comedy series Till Death Us Do Part (1966-1975).

Minoru Yamasaki, 73. U.S. architect. Mr. Yamasaki was best known for designing the World Trade Center.

Diplomacy
Haitian dictator Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier met with the American and French ambassadors to lay the groundwork for his departure for France.

Disasters
At the first meeting of the commission investigating the January 28 explosion of the U.S. space shuttle Challenger that had killed 7 astronauts, NASA officials acknowledged that there had been concerns about cold weather at the time of the launch, including the possibility that water pipes used for support services would freeze. Judson Lovingood, deputy manager of the shuttle’s project office in Huntsville, Alabama said that a conference call had been arranged with Morton Thiokol Inc., manufacturer of some parts of the rocket. There was concern that the rubbery O-rings used to seal joints connecting the four segments of the rockets could crack or break in the cold. Mr. Lovingood said that Morton Thiokol recommended that the launch proceed. The temperature at Cape Canaveral, Florida was 24F early on January 28 and 38F at the time of the launch, 13 Fahrenheit degrees colder than any previous launch.

25 years ago
1991

Hit parade
#1 single in Sweden (Topplistan): Sadeness (Part I)--Enigma (4th week at #1)

On television tonight
The Wonder Years, on ABC
Tonight’s episode: Who’s Aunt Rose?

Died on this date
Danny Thomas, 79. U.S. entertainer. Mr. Thomas, born Amos Kairouz, was a nightclub comedian and singer before he achieved success as an actor, most notably as the star of the television comedy series Make Room for Daddy (later retitled The Danny Thomas Show) (1953-1964).

Salvador Luria, 78. Italian-born U.S. microbiologist. Dr. Luria shared the 1969 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Max Delbrück and Alfred Hershey "for their discoveries concerning the replication mechanism and the genetic structure of viruses."

Space
Debris from the Soviet space station Salyut 7, which had been launched in 1982 and abandoned in 1986, re-entered Earth’s atmosphere. The 43-ton station had once held 6 cosmonauts. American experts said that the Soviets had intended to keep the station aloft, but unexpectedly high solar activity had increased atmospheric drag on the station, hastening its orbital decay. The Soviet government claimed there had never been any radioactive material aboard the station.

War
King Hussein of Jordan appeared to drop his stance of neutrality, asserting that nations allied against Iraq were attempting to put all Arabs "under direct foreign hegemony."

Protest
Students at Enver Hoxha University in Albania went on strike, calling for political and economic reforms and the ouster of some leading government officials.

20 years ago
1996

Died on this date
Guy Madison, 74. U.S. actor. Mr. Madison, born Robert Moseley, was best known as the star of the radio (1951-1956) and television (1951-1958) series The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok.

Disasters
Birgenair Flight 301 crashed off the coast of the Dominican Republic, killing all 189 people aboard in the worst accident or incident involving a Boeing 757.

Floods in the Willamette Valley of Oregon caused over $500 million in property damage throughout the Pacific Northwest.

10 years ago
2006

Died on this date
Pedro Gonzalez Gonzalez, 80. U.S. actor. Mr. Gonzalez Gonzalez was a character actor who appeared in several movies starring John Wayne, including The High and the Mighty (1954) and Rio Bravo (1959).

Politics and government
Conservative Party leader Stephen Harper was sworn in as Prime Minister of Canada with his cabinet in a ceremony at Rideau Hall in Ottawa, ending more than 12 years of Liberal Party government.