July 11, 2016

Born on this date
Happy Birthday, Lois Morrow!

670 years ago
1346

Politics and government
Charles IV, Count of Luxembourg and King of Bohemia, was elected King of the Romans.

220 years ago
1796

Americana
The United States took possession of Detroit from Great Britain under terms of the Jay Treaty.

180 years ago
1836

Born on this date
Carlos Gomes. Brazilian composer. Mr. Gomes wrote eight operas, as well as choruses and piano works, and has been regarded as the first New World composer whose works were accepted in Europe. He died on September 16, 1896 at the age of 60, after a period of declining health.

170 years ago
1846

Born on this date
Léon Bloy. French writer. Mr. Bloy wrote two novels, but was mainly known for his essays in defense of Roman Catholicism. He died on November 3, 1917 at the age of 71.

150 years ago
1866

Died on this date
James Henry Lane, 52. U.S. politician. Mr. Lane, a Republican, was Lieutenant Governor of Indiana from 1849-1853 and represented Indiana's 4th District in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1853-1855. He moved to Kansas and represented that state in the Senate from 1861 until his death. Mr. Lane was a brigadier general in the Union Army during the U.S. Civil War from 1861-1865. He died 10 days after shooting himself in the head as he leapt from his carriage in Leavenworth, Kansas. Mr. Lane was reportedly suffering from depression, and had been accused of financial irregularities.

125 years ago
1891

Baseball
Bob Leadley was fired as manager of the Cleveland Spiders and replaced by team captain Patsy Tebeau. The Spiders were in sixth place in the National League with a record of 34-34.

120 years ago
1896

Politics and government
Liberal Party leader Wilfrid Laurier was sworn in as Prime Minister of Canada, becoming the first French-speaking Prime Minister in the country's history. William Fielding resigned as Premier of Nova Scotia to take the position of Minister of Finance in Mr. Laurier's cabinet.

110 years ago
1906

Born on this date
Harry von Zell. U.S. announcer and actor. Mr. von Zell was an announcer for various radio programs, including The March of Time and the shows of comedians such as Eddie Cantor and George Burns in a career spanning more than 40 years. He worked in television in its early years, and starred in his own series of comedy short films for Columbia Pictures (1946-1950). Mr. von Zell died of cancer on November 21, 1981 at the age of 75.

Died on this date
Grace Brown, 20. U.S. murder victim. Miss Brown worked for the Gillette Skirt Company in Cortland, New York. She had an affair with Chester Gillette, the owner's nephew, and became pregnant by him. The couple were seen rowing on Big Moose Lake, and only Mr. Gillette returned. It was believed that he struck her on the head with a tennis racquet and pushed her into the lake, where she drowned. Mr. Gillette was convicted of murder and executed in 1908. The trial was a public sensation, and inspired the novel An American Tragedy (1925) by Theodore Dreiser.

Society
The Canadian Senate passed the Lord's Day Act, restricting trade, labour and recreation on Sundays; the act was supported by Protestant and Roman Catholic churches and labour groups.

100 years ago
1916

Born on this date
Alexander Prokhorov. Australian-born U.S.S.R. physicist. Dr. Prokhorov was born to Russian parents who had emigrated to Australia to escape political persecution, returning to Russia in 1923. Dr. Prokhorov shared the 1964 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Nicolay Basov and Charles Townes "for fundamental work in the field of quantum electronics, which has led to the construction of oscillators and amplifiers based on the maser–laser principle." He died on January 8, 2002 at the age of 85.

Reg Varney. U.K. actor. Mr. Varney was best known for his starring roles in the television comedy series The Rag Trade (1961-1963) and On the Buses (1969-1973). He died on November 16, 2008 at the age of 92.

Gough Whitlam. Prime Minister of Australia, 1972-1975. Mr. Whitlam, a member of the Labour Party, represented Werriwa in the House of Representatives from 1952-1978, and led the Labour Party from 1967-1977. He was dismissed as Prime Minister by Governor General Sir John Kerr during a constitutional crisis. Mr. Whitlam died on October 21, 2014 at the age of 98.

80 years ago
1936

On the radio
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, starring Louis Hector and Harry West, on MBS
Tonight’s episode: The Stockbroker's Clerk

Died on this date
James Murray, 35. U.S. actor. Mr. Murray appeared more than 30 films--often in bit parts or as an extra--but was best known for his starring performance in The Crowd (1928). Heavy drinking destroyed his career and life, and probably contributed to his death by drowning after falling from the North River pier in New York City.

Weather
Manitoba experienced its hottest day on record - 119 degrees Fahrenheit (44.4 degrees Celsius).

75 years ago
1941

Died on this date
Arthur Evans, 90. U.K. archaeologist. Sir Arthur was a journalist and keeper of the Ashmolean Museum at the University of Oxford who was a pioneer in the study of Aegean civilization in the Bronze Age. He was best known for unearthing the palace of Knossos on the Greek island of Crete in the early 1900s. Sir Arthur died three days after his 90th birthday.

War
The U.S.S.R.'s three ranking marshals--Klementy Voroshilov, Semyon Timoshenko, and Semyon Budenny--were placed in command of the Leningrad, Moscow, and Kiev fronts respectively. The Vichy French regime rejected British armistice terms in Syria, and fighting continued on all fronts.

Argentina announced that Peru had accepted "in principle" the offer of the United States, Brazil, and Argentina to mediate the Peruvian-Ecuadorian border dispute.

Diplomacy
U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau ordered customs officials to seize 18 Axis ships under the Espionage Act of 1917. Former Columbia University professor Friedrich Ernst Auhagen was convicted in Washington of failing to register as a German propaganda agent, and was sentenced to 8 months-2 years in prison and a $1,000 fine.

Defense
U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed William J. Donovan as head of a new civilian intelligence agency with the title of coordinator of defense information.

Politics and government
The Northern Rhodesian Labour Party held its first congress in Nkana.

Academia
City College of New York tutor Morris Schappes was sentenced to 18 months-2 years in Sing Sing prison after his June 28 conviction on four counts of perjury during his testimony on the Communist movement before the Rapp-Coudert committee.

Economics and finance
The Japanese government announced its decision to assume control of the nation's financial system, making private financial insitutions virtual susidiaries of the Bank of Japan.

The U.S. Office for the Coordination of Commercial and Cultural Relations between the American Republics announced that approximately 1,800 Latin American firms and individuals with Axis connections had been put on a trade "blacklist."

Labour
American Federation of Musicians President James Petrillo ordered the union's 138,000 members to play The Star-Spangled Banner at the beginning and end of every musical program.

Disasters
11 men were killed in a mine explosion in Acmar, Alabama.

70 years ago
1946

Died on this date
Carlos Arosemena, 78. Panamanian politician. Mr. Arosomena led Panama's independence movement; he died in New York City.

Movies
Cagney Productions announced in Hollywood that they had signed American World War II hero Audie Murphy to a contract as an actor.

War
A U.S. military court in Dachau convicted 73 SS soldiers, including General Joseph "Sepp" Dietrich for murdering American prisoners and Belgian civilians during the Battle of the Bulge in 1944-1945.

Defense
A U.S. Joint Chief of Staffs evaluation board and a presidential commission reported that the recent Bikini Atoll atomic bomb blast had damaged more vessels than any previous single explosion, and concluded that ships' superstructures must be redesigned. The U.S. War Department announced plans for a National Guard of 682,114 men in mobile units, twice the pre-World War II force.

Politics and government
The New York Liberal Party nominated U.S. Senator James Mead (Democrat--New York) as its candidate for Governor of New York and former Governor and United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration Director Herbert Lehman as its candidate for United States Senator in the November 1946 elections.

Scandal
The U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Un-American Activities made public a report by Chief Counsel Ernie Adamson charging that physicists at the government's Oak Ridge, Tennessee nuclear facility were guilty of subversive activities.

Brittanica
King George VI attended a service of thanksgiving for the preservation of Canterbury Cathedral, becoming the first English king since 1660 to visit the cathedral.

Economics and finance
U.S. Office of War Mobilization and Reconversion Director John Steelman stated in his agency's seventh quarterly report that the country must choose between high inflation or government control of the economy.

U.S. National Farmers Union President James Patterson disclosed that his organization had broken with the administration of U.S. President Harry Truman in a dispute over agricultural subsidies.

60 years ago
1956

At the movies
A Strange Adventure, directed by William Whitney, and starring Joan Evans, Ben Cooper, Marla English, and Jan Merlin, opened in theatres in Los Angeles.



Diplomacy
The United States "unofficially" denied Soviet charges that American planed had violated U.S.S.R. air space in western Russia in July 1955.

Defense
The United States detonated the largest nuclear blast in its current test series at the Pacific proving grounds.

Aviation
Frances Bera, a flying instructor from Los Angeles, won the 2,366-mile Powderpuff Derby race for women.

Energy
The French National Assembly approved French participation in the proposed European atomic energy agency.

Medicine
U.K. cancer pathologist Dr. Alexander Haddow reported that a nitrogen mustard derivative of amniophenylalamine had cured cancer induced in rats under laboratory conditions.

50 years ago
1966

Hit parade
#1 single in Spain (PROMUSICAE): Juanita Banana--Luis Aguilé (2nd week at #1)

#1 single in Ireland (IRMA): Paperback Writer--The Beatles (4th week at #1)

Canada's Top 10 (RPM)
1 Red Rubber Ball--The Cyrkle
2 Jug Band Music--The Lovin' Spoonful
3 Strangers in the Night--Frank Sinatra
4 You Don't Have to Say You Love Me--Dusty Springfield
5 Don't Bring Me Down--The Animals
6 Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind--The Lovin' Spoonful
7 Paperback Writer--The Beatles
8 Oh How Happy--The Shades of Blue
9 Cool Jerk--The Capitols
10 Barefootin'--Robert Parker

Singles entering the chart were I Saw Her Again by the Mamas and the Papas (#50); Trains and Boats and Planes by Dionne Warwick (#75); The Work Song by Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass (#77); I Want You by Bob Dylan (#87); Sunny by Bobby Hebb (#89); Stop! Get a Ticket by the Clefs of Lavender Hill (#90); High on Love by the Knickerbockers (#91); All These Things by the Uniques (#92); Past, Present and Future by the Shangri-Las (#93); La Bamba (Part 1) by Trini Lopez (#94); Everybody Loves a Nut by Johnny Cash (#96); Hey You Little Boo-Ga-Loo by Chubby Checker (#97); Going Down by Tom Northcott (#98); Most of All by the Cowsills (#99); and Baby It's All Worthwhile by Dee and the Yeomen (#100).

Died on this date
Andrew McNaughton, 79. Canadian military officer. In a Canadian Army career from 1909-1944, General McNaughton, a native of Moosomin, Northwest Territories (now part of Saskatchewan) served with distinction in both World Wars, eventually becoming Chief of the General Staff, and even inventing military technology. He served as Canada's Minister of Defence in the Liberal government of Prime Minister Mackenzie King, but was unable to get elected to the House of Commons. Gen. McNaughton served in several diplomatic posts after World War II.

Politics and government
Liberal candidates won both seats in Prince Edward Island provincial by-elections for the riding of 1st Kings, giving the Liberals a 17-15 majority in the House of Assembly. The May 30 election had resulted in a 15-15 tie, but the election for 1st Kings had been delayed because of the death of Liberal candidate William Acorn. The Progressive Conservative government of Premier Walter Shaw remained in power, but the by-election results led to the resignation of Mr. Shaw's government in favour of the Liberals, led by Alex Campbell.

30 years ago
1986

Hit parade
#1 single in West Germany (Media Control): Lessons in Love--Level 42

Born on this date
Happy Birthday, Dominika Szyling!

Football
CFL
Toronto (2-1) 17 @ British Columbia (2-1) 28



25 years ago
1991

Hit parade
#1 single in Ireland (IRMA): Everything I Do (I Do it for You)--Bryan Adams (2nd week at #1)

Died on this date
Roger Christian, 57. U.S. disc jockey and songwriter. Mr. Christian, a disc jockey with the popular Los Angeles station KWFB in the early 1960s, collaborated in writing songs with Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys and Jan Berry of Jan and Dean. His most notable credits included the Beach Boys' songs Shut Down, Little Deuce Coupe and Don't Worry, Baby; his Jan and Dean credits included Honolulu Lulu Drag City, Dead Man's Curve, The Little Old Lady From Pasadena, and Sidewalk Surfin'. Mr. Christian died eight days after his 57th birthday; his ex-wife claimed that he died of kidney and liver failure, although it was also said that he committed suicide.

Protest
British Member of Parliament Terry Fields (Labour--Liverpool Broadgreen) was sentenced to 60 days in prison for refusing to pay his £373 poll tax.

Disasters
Nigeria Airways Flight 2120, a Douglas DC-8 jet, crashed in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia killing all 261 passengers and crew on board.

Football
CFL
Toronto (1-0) 35 @ Ottawa (0-1) 18



Calgary (1-0) 39 @ British Columbia (0-1) 34

20 years ago
1996

Hit parade
#1 single in Finland (Musiikkituottajat – IFPI Finland): Killing Me Softly--The Fugees (2nd week at #1)

#1 single in Denmark (Nielsen Music Control & IFPI): Macarena--Los Del Rio (4th week at #1)

Died on this date
Lou Gottlieb, 72. U.S. musician. Dr. Gottlieb, whose doctorate was in musicology, played bass and acted as frontman for the folk group the Limeliters, who were one of the most popular recording and performing acts in the early 1960s. Dr. Gottlieb founded the Morningstar Ranch commune in 1966, which he declared open to all people. He died of cancer.

Basketball
Canada defeated Australia 54-38 in a pre-Paralympic wheelchair women's exhibition game in Edmonton at the University of Alberta's main gym. This blogger met a number of the Australian women, and was quite impressed.

Football
CFL
Toronto (2-1) 35 @ Winnipeg (1-2) 14

Robert Drummond rushed 7 times for 100 yards--including a 79-yard touchdown in the 1st quarter--and caught 8 passes for 104 yards as the Argonauts defeated the Blue Bombers before 24,882 fans at Winnipeg Stadium. Toronto quarterback Doug Flutie completed 25 of 42 passes for 388 yards and 2 touchdowns to Tyrone Williams.



10 years ago
2006

Died on this date
Barnard Hughes, 90. U.S. actor. Mr. Hughes was a character actor who appeared in numerous plays, movies, and television programs. He won a Tony Award for his starring performance in Da (1978), and reprised the role in the movie (1988). His other movies included Midnight Cowboy (1969) and The Hospital (1971). Mr. Hughes starred in the television comedy series Doc (1975-1976), appeared in several episodes of the comedy series All in the Family as Roman Catholic priest Father John Majeski, and won an Emmy Award in 1978 for a guest performance in Lou Grant. Mr. Hughes died five days before his 91st birthday.

Terrorism
209 people were killed and 700 injured in a series of seven bomb attacks on the Suburban Railway in Mumbai.

Baseball
Major League All-Star Game @ PNC Park, Pittsburgh
American League 3 @ National League 2

Michael Young of the Texas Rangers doubled home José Lopez of the Seattle Mariners and Troy Glaus of the Toronto Blue Jays with 2 out in the top of the 9th inning to give the AL the win before 38,904 fans. San Diego Padres' relief ace Trevor Hoffman retired the first two batters in the 9th inning, but Paul Konerko of the Chicago White Sox singled, and Mr. Lopez entered the game as a pinch runner for him, and Mr. Glaus followed with a double.