February 8, 2016

725 years ago
1291

Born on this date
Afonso IV. King of Portugal, 1325-1357. Afonso IV "the Brave" was the only legitimate son of King Denis and Elizabeth of Aragon, and acceded to the throne upon the death of his father. His reign was mostly peaceful, with the exception of a four-year war against Castile. The latter part of King Afonso's reign was characterized by political intrigue, much of it resulting from his son and heir Pedro's affair with Inês de Castro, his wife's lady-in-waiting. King Afonso IV died on May 28, 1357 at the age of 66, and was succeeded by his son Pedro I.

425 years ago
1591

Born on this date
Guercino. Italian artist. Guercino, whose real name was Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, was a Baroque painter and draftsman who produced over 140 paintings and numerous drawings. He painted and drew landscapes, genre subjects, and caricatures. Guercino died on December 22, 1666 at the age of 75.

320 years ago
1696

Died on this date
Ivan V, 29. Czar of Russia, 1682-1696. Ivan V, the youngest son of Czar Alexis I by his first wife Maria Miloslavskaya, and his younger half-brother Peter I were joint czars. Ivan was the monarch in name only, because he had serious physical and mental disabilities, which led to his death. His brother then became sole Czar, and became known as Peter the Great.

275 years ago
1741

Born on this date
André Grétry. Belgian-born French composer. Mr. Grétry moved to France in 1767 after years of study in Rome. He wrote 50 operas, and was known for his opéras comiques, many of them influenced by the great events he witnessed. Mr. Grétry died on September 24, 1813 at the age of 72.

160 years ago
1856

Society
Barbu Dimitrie Stirbei abolished slavery in Wallachia (now part of Romania).

80 years ago
1936

On the radio
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, starring Louis Hector and Harry West, on MBS
Tonight’s episode: The Red Headed League

Died on this date
Charles Curtis, 76. 31st Vice President of the United States, 1929-1933. Mr. Curtis, a Republican, was partly of Kaw Indian ancestry, and grew up on a reservation in Kansas. He represented his state in the United States House of Representatives from 1893-1907 and in the Senate from 1907-1913 and 1915-1929, when he took office as Vice President under President Herbert Hoover. Mr. Curtis was Mr. Hoover's running mate again in 1932, but the administration was unpopular because of its perceived inability to deal with the Depression, and the ticket was soundly defeated. Mr. Curtis then retired from politics and practiced law until his death from a heart attack, two weeks after his 76th birthday.

Football
NFL
The National Football League held its first draft of college players. Jay Berwanger of the University of Chicago, winner of the 1935 Downtown Athletic Trophy--soon to be renamed the Heisman Trophy--as the nation’s outstanding college player, was the first player selected, by the Philadelphia Eagles. The other Pennsylvania team, the Pittsburgh Pirates, took as their first selection a back named William Shakespeare.

75 years ago
1941

Hit parade
#1 single in the U.S.A. (Billboard): Frenesi--Artie Shaw and His Orchestra (8th week at #1)

War
German and Bulgarian general staffs reached a secret agreement for permitting passage of German troops to attack Greece. The Greek government asked for British aid in the case of attack by German forces.

Defense
The United States House of Representatives passed the Lend-Lease bill by a vote of 260-165 after rejecting 13 additional amendments. A Gallup Poll reported that 54% of American voters questioned in a recent survey supported the Lend-Lease bill, with 22% opposed.

U.S. National Education Association President Dr. Donald DuShane proposed formation of a teachers' defense commission to prevent threatened attacks on public schools.

Diplomacy
Malcolm MacDonald was appointed British High Commissioner to Canada.

Harry Hopkins, personal representative of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt to U.K. Prime Minister Winston Churchill, had his last meeting with Mr. Churchill at Chequers, the private prime ministerial retreat.

Politics and government
The French government reported that former Prime Minister Pierre Laval had rejected Prime Minister Marshal Philippe Petain's offer to be readmitted to the Vichy cabinet as a minister of state; Mr. Laval reportedly demanded the prime ministership with a cabinet of his own choosing.

Economics and finance
Brazilian President Getulio Vargas decreed that export permits would be required for Brazilian raw materials, chemical products, machinery, and tools to all countries outside the Americas.

Labour
The U.S. National Labor Relations Board ordered International Harvester Company to abolish company-dominated unions in its six Midwestern plants.

70 years ago
1946

War
At the trial in Nuremberg of accused Nazi war criminals, Lieutenant General Roman Rudenko opened the Soviet prosecution against the 21 defendants by reading a 79-page document recounting German atrocities. U.S. President Harry Truman rejected the clemency appeal of convicted Japanese war criminal General Tomoyuki Yamashita. A joint U.S. Army-Navy report revealed that the bomb-carrying balloons released by Japan in World War II had cost about $18 million and caused 6 deaths in Oregon and a few small forest fires.

Diplomacy
In a meeting of the United Nations Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Commission, former U.S. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt successfully opposed a Soviet proposal to restrict aid given to refugees who refused to return to their homelands.

Adolf Berle resigned as U.S. Ambassador to Brazil.

Technology
U.S. government scientists disclosed a process of "printing" wiring circuits on a ceramic plate, making possible the production of miniature radios and other electronic equipment.

Economics and finance
After its European tour, the United States House of Representatives committee headed by Rep. William Colmer (Democrat--Mississippi) reported that the U.S.S.R. had drawn Poland, the Baltic republics, and the Balkan states into its economic and political orbit to the point where trade with them was practically impossible.

U.S. President Truman asked for prompt congressional action on a two-year emergency housing plan calling for 2.7 million new homes.

Labour
The month-long strike of New York City communications workers against Western Union ended with an agreement to submit the wage dispute to arbitration.

60 years ago
1956

At the movies
Time Table, directed by Mark Stevens, and starring Mr. Stevens, King Calder, and Felicia Farr, opened in theatres.



Died on this date
Connie Mack, 93. U.S. baseball player, manager, and executive. Mr. Mack, whose real name was Cornelius McGillicuddy, was a catcher with the Washington Nationals (1886-1889); Buffalo Bisons (1890) and Pittsburgh Pirates (1891-1896), batting .244 with 5 home runs and 265 runs batted in in 724 games. He managed the Pirates from 1894-1896, and then managed the Milwaukee Brewers of the minor Western League, which became the American League in 1900. When the AL became a major league in 1901, Mr. Mack joined the Philadelphia Athletics, where he served as manager from 1901-1950 and eventually became the team's owner. He compiled a major league managerial record of 3731-3948 (.486), winning American League pennants in 1902; 1905; 1910-1911; 1913-1914; and 1929-1931 and World Series in 1910-1911; 1913; and 1929-1930. Mr. Mack was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1937. He sold the Athletics after the 1954 season to Arnold Johnson, who promptly moved the team to Kansas City.

50 years ago
1966

On television tonight
The Fugitive, starring David Janssen, on ABC
Tonight's episode: Shadow of the Swan, with guest stars Joanna Pettet, Andrew Duggan, and David Sheiner

Died on this date
Gene Paulette, 74. U.S. baseball player. Mr. Paulette was an infielder with the New York Giants (1911); St. Louis Browns (1916-1917); St. Louis Cardinals (1917-1919); and Philadelphia Phillies (1919-1920), batting .269 with 2 home runs and 165 runs batted in in 500 games. He played in the Southern Association from 1912-1916. Mr. Paulette was permanently barred from organized baseball by Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis on March 24, 1921 for failing to adequately explain a letter he'd written in 1919 to St. Louis gamblers Elmer Farrar and Carl Zork offering to elist the help of two Cardinals' players to fix the outcome of games. With his baseball career over, Mr. Paulette worked for the Missouri Pacific Railroad in Little Rock, Arkansas; he died of a heart attack.

Diplomacy
U.S. President Lyndon Johnson and South Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Cao Ky concluded their two-day conference in Honolulu, outlining American and South Vietnamese political and military policies, as well as social and economic programs.

30 years ago
1986

Hit parade
#1 single in Italy (FIMI): Diamond--Via Verdi

#1 single in Flanders (Ultratop 50): Nikita--Elton John (8th week at #1)

#1 single in the Netherlands (De Nederlandse Top 40): A Good Heart--Feargal Sharkey (2nd week at #1)

#1 single in Ireland (IRMA): Only Love--Nana Mouskouri

#1 single in the U.K.: The Sun Always Shines on T.V.--A-Ha (3rd week at #1)

#1 single in the U.S.A. (Billboard): That’s What Friends are For--Dionne and Friends (with Elton John, Gladys Knight & Stevie Wonder) (4th week at #1)

U.S.A. Top 10 (Cash Box)
1 That’s What Friends are For--Dionne and Friends (with Elton John, Gladys Knight & Stevie Wonder) (3rd week at #1)
2 Burning Heart--Survivor
3 I’m Your Man--Wham!
4 Talk to Me--Stevie Nicks
5 When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Going--Billy Ocean
6 Say You, Say Me--Lionel Richie
7 My Hometown--Bruce Springsteen
8 How Will I Know--Whitney Houston
9 Kyrie--Mr. Mister
10 Spies Like Us--Paul McCartney

Singles entering the chart were Rock Me Amadeus by Falcon (#76); Tender Love by Force M.D.’s (#79); Addicted to Love by Robert Palmer (#83); Life's What You Make It by Talk Talk (#88); Lying by Peter Frampton (#89); and Jimmy Mack by Sheena Easton (#90). Tender Love was from the movie Krush Groove (1985).

Canada's Top 10 (RPM)
1 I Miss You--Klymaxx
2 That’s What Friends are For--Dionne and Friends (with Elton John, Gladys Knight & Stevie Wonder)
3 Rock Me Amadeus--Falco
4 Party All the Time--Eddie Murphy
5 When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Going--Billy Ocean
6 Say You, Say Me--Lionel Richie
7 I’m Your Man--Wham!
8 Conga--Miami Sound Machine
9 Tarzan Boy--Baltimora
10 Talk to Me--Stevie Nicks

Singles entering the chart were Eurasian Eyes by Corey Hart (#78); Don’t Forget Me When I’m Gone by Glass Tiger (#82); Another Night by Aretha Franklin (#90); Night Moves by Marilyn Martin (#94); A Good Heart by Feargal Sharkey (#95); Vienna Calling by Falco (#97); and The Power of Love by Jennifer Rush (#98).

Died on this date
Diane Elsroth. U.S. crime victim. Ms. Elsroth, a resident of Peekskill, New York, died after taking a Tylenol capsule that contained potassium cyanide. The bottle containing the deadly capsule had been purchased at an A&P supermarket in Bronxville, New York. Ms. Elsroth's death was reminiscent of the deaths of seven people in 1982 from the same cause; those murders have never been solved. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration seized thousands of packages of Tylenol capsules in the Bronxville area.

Disasters
In Alberta’s worst train crash, 23 people were killed and 95 injured in a collision between a Via Rail Supercontinental passenger train and a Canadian National Railways freight train near Hinton. The freight train passed warning lights and a stop light before jumping a closed switch into the path of the oncoming passenger train.

Hockey
NHL
Edmonton 4 @ Washington 5 (OT)
St. Louis 2 @ Toronto 3 (OT)

25 years ago
1991

War
U.S. Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney and General Colin Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, arrived in Saudi Arabia to review the progress of the war against Iraq.

20 years ago
1996

Hit parade
#1 single in Finland (Musiikkituottajat – IFPI Finland): Spaceman--Babylon Zoo (2nd week at #1)

#1 single in Denmark (Nielsen Music Control & IFPI): Spaceman-- Babylon Zoo (2nd week at #1)

Died on this date
Del Ennis, 70. U.S. baseball player. Mr. Ennis played right field and left field with the Philadelphia Phillies (1946-1956); St. Louis Cardinals (1957-1958); Cincinnati Reds (1959); and Chicago White Sox (1959), batting .284 with 288 home runs and 1,284 runs batted in in 1,903 games. He led the National League in runs batted in with 126 in 1950, when he played right field for the Phillies' "Whiz Kids" team that won the NL pennant.

Communications
In a ceremony at the Library of Congress, U.S. President Bill Clinton signed legislation revamping the telecommunications industry, saying it would "bring the future to our doorstep."

Business
The American bookstore chain Borders announced that it would invest in a chain of bookstores in Canada; The Canadian government's Investment Review Division blocked the plan in May 2006 under the cultural exemption of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

10 years ago
2006

Died on this date
Elton Dean, 60. U.K. musician. Mr. Dean was a saxophonist and occasional keyboard player who was a member of the bands Bluesology (1966-1967); Keith Tippett Sextet (1968-1970); Soft Machine (1969-1972); and Ninesense (1975-1978). The pianist with Bluesology, Reg Dwight, took Mr. Dean's first name and the first name of bandleader Long John Baldry, and became known as Elton John. Mr. Dean died after several years with heart and liver problems.