March 5, 2016

Born on this date
Happy Birthday, Olivia Mananquil!

520 years ago
1496

Exploration
King Henry VII of England granted to Italian merchant and explorer Giovanni Caboto Montecataluna (John Cabot) letters patent with "free authority, faculty and power to sail to all parts, regions and coasts of the eastern, western and northern sea, under our banners, flags and ensigns, with five ships or vessels of whatsoever burden and quality they may be, and with so many and with such mariners and men as they may wish to take with them in the said ships, at their own proper costs and charges, to find, discover and investigate whatsoever islands, countries, regions or provinces of heathens and infidels, in whatsoever part of the world placed, which before this time were unknown to all Christians."

400 years ago
1616

Religion
Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus's book De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres) was banned by the Roman Catholic Church. The book, first published shortly before Mr. Copernicus's death in 1543, pioneered the view that the Earth orbits the Sun, and is not the centre of the universe. Ironically, Mr. Copernicus dedicated the book to Pope Paul III.

250 years ago
1766

Politics and government
Antonio de Ulloa, the first Spanish governor of Louisiana, arrived in New Orleans.

125 years ago
1891

Politics and government
Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald led his governing Conservatives to victory in the seventh Canadian federal election, and his last. The Conservatives won 97 seats, which, combined with 20 seats for Liberal-Conservatives, gave them a majority of the 215 seats in the House of Commons. The Liberals, led by Wilfrid Laurier, won 90 seats. Three independent conservatives were elected, along with 2 independents, one Nationalist, one independent Liberal, and one Nationalist Conservative. The Conservatives and Liberal-Conservatives combined to captured 48.6% of the popular vote, running under the slogan, "The old flag, the old policy, the old leader". In the 1887 election, the Conservatives and Liberal-Conservatives had won 122 seats to 80 for the Liberals, who were then led by Edward Blake.

110 years ago
1906

War
In an attempt to quell the rebellion by residents of the Philippine province of Moro, United States Army troops used overwhelming force against the native Moros in the First Battle of Bud Dajo, leaving only six survivors of the 800-1,000 natives. The islanders were armed only with short swords. The battle was also known as the Moro Crater Massacre.

80 years ago
1936

Movies
The Academy Awards for 1935 were presented at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles. The winners included: Best Picture--Mutiny on the Bounty; Best Director--John Ford (The Informer); Best Actor--Victor McLaglen (The Informer); and Best Actress--Bette Davis (Dangerous).



Defense
The prototype of the British advanced monoplane fighter aircraft Supermarine Spitfire made its first flight from Eastleigh Aerodrome, near Southampton, England, with Captain Joseph "Mutt" Summers at the controls.

75 years ago
1941

War
The United Kingdom announced that Ethiopian forces had routed an Italian army of 20,000 in the province of Gojjam and captured the fort of Burye. A German court martial in Amsterdam sentenced 18 Dutch resisters to death and 19 others to prison for espionage and sabotage.

Diplomacy
The United Kingdom severed diplomatic relations with Bulgaria.

Defense
Panamanian President Arnulfo Arias announced that the United States had been given permission to establish air and anti-aircraft bases on Panamanian soil to protect the Panama Canal. The U.S. Senate passed seven amendments to the Lend-Lease bill, ending powers conferred on the President on June 30, 1943, and requiring congressional appropriations for additional aid.

Economics and finance
Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie King announced that Bulgaria and Hungary would be subject to "trading with the enemy" regulations.

New York Stock Exchange President William McC. Martin attacked Securities and Exchange Commission members as "ignorant" and partially responsible for the decline in exchange business.

70 years ago
1946

Academia
At Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill delivered a speech titled The Sinews of Peace, where he said, "From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an Iron Curtain has descended across the continent." Mr. Churchill urged a close U.S.-U.K. alliance to combat world Communism.



At Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill delivered a speech titled The Sinews of Peace, where he said, "From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an Iron Curtain has descended across the continent." Mr. Churchill urged a close U.S.-U.K. alliance to combat world Communism.

Diplomacy
The U.S. State Department protested the U.S.S.R.'s continued presence in Iran and Soviet claims to all Japanese enterprises in Manchuria as war booty.

Eugene Cardinal Tisserant of France claimed that a secret clause of the Yalta agreement provided for repatriation of Russians who had fled the U.S.S.R. after 1929, and that thousands of refugees were being forcibly returned to Russia by the U.K. and U.S.A.

Crime
British nuclear scientist Dr. Alan Nunn May was taken into custody after being arraigned in London on charges of disclosing official secrets.

Defense
The U.S. House of Representatives Military Affairs Committee voted to place the May-Johnson atom control bill before the full House.

U.S. Army General Dwight Eisenhower delcared that Army efficiency was low and that it would take at least a year to restore the service to pre-World War II status.

Politics and government
Hungarian Communists and Social Democrats co-founded the Left Bloc.

Law
The U.S. military government in Germany presented a "definitive" denazification law to German officials from the U.S. occupation zone meeting in Munich. The law provided penalties ranging from property confiscation and disenfranchisement to forced labour abroad for convicted Nazis.

Religion
A 21-man special commission of the Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America presented a report condemning the August 1945 bombings of Japan and urging that the U.S. abandon the bomb pending international control.

Education
Rev. John M. Coleman became the first Negro appointed to the New York City Board of Higher Education.

Economics and finance
Speaking in Topeka, Kansas, U.S. Office of Economic Stabilzation Director Chester Bowles assailed "greedy, reckless lobbies" and proclaimed the next several weeks vital "in our fight to maintain a stabilized economy."

60 years ago
1956

At the movies
Over-Exposed, directed by Lewis Seiler, and starring Cleo Moore and Richard Crenna, opened in theatres.



Society
The United States Supreme Court upheld a ban on racial segregation in state schools, colleges and universities. The University of North Carolina was appealing a 1954 lower court ruling that had ordered UNC to admit three Negro students.

50 years ago
1966

Hit parade
#1 single in Australia (Kent Music Report): These Boots are Made for Walkin'--Nancy Sinatra

#1 single in France: Une Mèche de Cheveux--Salvatore Adamo (2nd week at #1)

#1 single in Italy (FIMI): Nessuno mi può giudicare--Caterina Caselli (4th week at #1)

#1 single in West Germany (Media Control): Yesterday Man--Chris Andrews (5th week at #1)

#1 single in the Netherlands (De Nederlandse Top 40): Michelle--The Beatles; The Overlanders (4th week at #1)

#1 single in the U.K. (New Musical Express): 19th Nervous Breakdown--The Rolling Stones (3rd week at #1)

#1 single in the U.S.A. (Billboard): The Ballad of the Green Berets--SSgt Barry Sadler

U.S.A. Top 10 (Cash Box)
1 The Ballad of the Green Berets--SSgt Barry Sadler
2 These Boots are Made for Walkin'--Nancy Sinatra
3 Lightnin' Strikes--Lou Christie
4 Listen People--Herman's Hermits
5 California Dreamin'--The Mamas and the Papas
6 Uptight (Everything's Alright)--Stevie Wonder
7 19th Nervous Breakdown--The Rolling Stones
8 Elusive Butterfly--Bob Lind
9 I Fought the Law--Bobby Fuller Four
10 My World is Empty Without You--The Supremes

Singles entering the chart were Nowhere Man by the Beatles (#23); Sure Gonna Miss Her by Gary Lewis and the Playboys (#67); Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down) by Cher (#80); The Love You Save (May Be Your Own) by Joe Tex (#85); Think I'll Go Somewhere and Cry Myself to Sleep by Al Martino (#86); Satisfaction by Otis Redding (#87); Ain't That a Groove (Part 1) by James Brown and the Famous Flames (#88); Nessuno Mi Puo' Giudcare by Gene Pitney (#89); Secret Agent Man by the Ventures (#90); Philly Dog by the Mar-Keys (#92); I Can't Grow Peaches on a Cherry Tree by Just Us (#95); Moulty by the Barbarians (#97); Smokey Joe's La La by the Googie Rene Combo (#98); and Communication by David McCallum (#99).

Labour
Marvin Miller, assistant to the president of the United Steelworkers of America, was named executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association.

Disasters
Less than 24 hours after 64 of 72 people aboard Canadian Pacific Air Lines Flight 402, a DC-8-43 jetliner en route from Hong Kong to Vancouver via Tokyo, had been killed when it exploded on landing at Haneda International Airport in Tokyo, British Overseas Airways Corporation Flight 911, a Boeing 707-436 jetliner en route from San Francisco to Hong Kong with several stops on the way, taxied past the wreckage and then crashed near Mount Fuji after severe clear-air turbulence, killing all 113 passengers and 11 crew members aboard.

40 years ago
1976

Hit parade
#1 single in New Zealand: Bohemian Rhapsody--Queen

#1 single in West Germany (Media Control): Mississippi--Pussycat

#1 single in Switzerland: Moviestar--Harpo (3rd week at #1)

Died on this date
Otto Tief, 86. Prime Minister of Estonia, 1944. Mr. Tief formed a government in September 1944 during the brief time between the departure of occupying German troops and the arrival of occupying Soviet troops. He was arrested and spent 10 years in the gulag in Siberia before returning to Estonia in 1956. He was deported to Ukraine in 1965, but was eventually permitted to settle in Latvia, just across the border from Estonia. Mr. Tief is widely regarded as a national hero in Estonia.

Theatre
This blogger attended a performance of If a Man Answers (adapted by David Rogers from the book by Winifred Wolfe) at the Sir John Franklin Territorial High School gymnasium in Yellowknife. I attended the second of three performances. The cast included Mike Ritchie, Lynne Hodgson,and Jill Munroe.

Politics and government
Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau suggested that the federal governmetn could take unilateral action to patriate the British North America Act from Britain if the provinces were unable to agree.

The 25th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union concluded in Moscow with an endorsement by the 5,000 delegates of the leadership of General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev.

30 years ago
1986

Hit parade
#1 single in Sweden (Topplistan): Brother Louie--Modern Talking

World events
Philippines President Corazon Aquino, fulfilling a campaign promise, freed two leading Communists who were among more than 500 political prisoners who were being freed.

Diplomacy
U.S. President Ronald Reagan said that unless Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev came to the United States in 1986, he (Mr. Reagan) would not go to the Soviet Union in 1987.

Politics and government
The 27th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union ratified new economic and political programs.

25 years ago
1991

War
Iraq concluded two days of releasing prisoners of war, releasing 45, and said that no more were held. The Red Cross said that at least 7,000 Kuwaitis were unaccounted for. Baghdad radio reported that the annexation of Kuwait had been voided. Israel announced that Scud missiles had killed 2 of its citizens and injured 239. Meanwhile, Shiite Muslims in southern Iraq had rebelled against government control, and fighting in Basra, a major city, was reported. Kuwaiti oil officials said that Iraq had sabotaged Kuwait’s oil refineries; eliminated all above-ground oil storage facilities; and destroyed about half of the centres where oil, gas, and water were separated.

Environment
Canadian Environment Minister Robert de Cotret announced a $25-million plan to cut toxic discharges into the Great Lakes as part of the Green Plan.

Health
259 people were reported to have died since January in an outbreak of cholera in Peru, the first epidemic of the disease in the western hemisphere since the early 19th century.

20 years ago
1996

Died on this date
Whit Bissell, 86. U.S. actor. Mr. Bissell was a character actor who appeared in numerous movies and television programs, often playing figures of authority. He played General Heywood Kirk in the television series The Time Tunnel (1966-1967). Mr. Bissell's movies included Shack Out on 101 (1955); I was a Teenage Werewolf (1957); and I was a Teenage Frankenstein (1957).

Jose Santacruz Londono. Colombian criminal. Mr. Santacruz was a fugitive drug trafficker who was killed in a shootout with police.

10 years ago
2006

Died on this date
Richard Kuklinski, 70. U.S. criminal. Mr. Kuklinski, nicknamed "The Iceman" for his habit of freezing the bodies of his victims, was a contract killer with the DeValcante crime family in Newark, New Jersey. He claimed to have murdered from 100-250 men from 1948-1986, but was convicted of just five murders committed in the 1980s. He was arrested in December 1986 and sentenced to consecutive life sentences. Mr. Kuklinski died in prison of natural causes.

Timothy Wilson. Canadian soldier. Master Corporal Wilson died in a German hospital of injuries suffered in an LAV III crash on March 2 in Afghanistan.

Movies
The Academy Awards for 2005 were presented at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, California. The winners included: Best Picture--Crash; Best Director--Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain); Best Actor--Philip Seymour Hoffman (Capote); Best Actress--Reese Witherspoon (Walk the Line); Best Supporting Actor--George Clooney (Syriana); and Best Supporting Actress--Rachel Weisz (The Constant Gardener). It was the first time in 49 years and only the third time ever that all six of the Oscars mentioned went to different films.