March 25, 2017

1,300 years ago
717

Politics and government
Emperor Theodosius III, who had reigned for two years, resigned the throne of the Byzantine Empire to enter the clergy; he was succeeded by Leo III.

720 years ago
1297

Born on this date
Andronikos III. Emperor of the Byzantine Empire, 1328-1341. Andronikos III acceded to the throne after the deposition of his grandfather Andronikos II. Andronikos III achieved mixed results in wars, but succeeded in implementing judicial reforms. His death on June 15, 1341 at the age of 44 may have been from chronic malaria, and he was succeeded by his 9-year-old son John V.

250 years ago
1767

Born on this date
Joachim Murat. King of Naples, 1808-1815. Mr. Murat was an Admiral of France under Napoleon Bonaparte. His forces were defeated in the Battle of Tolentino in May 1815 and fled to Corsica, but fomented an insurrection in Calabria in an attempt to regain power in Naples. Mr. Murat was unsuccessful, and was executed by firing squad on October 13, 1815 at the age of 48.

210 years ago
1807

Society
King George III proclaimed the Act for the Abolition of the Slave Trade in the British Empire; the abolition campaign had been led by British MP William Wilberforce. The Royal Navy was to set up the West Africa Squadron (or Preventative Squadron) to enforce the law.

Transportation
The Swansea and Mumbles Railway in Wales, then known as the Oystermouth Railway, became the first railway in the world to carry passengers.

150 years ago
1867

Born on this date
Gutzon Borglum. U.S. sculptor. Mr. Borglum was best known for designing the sculpture of four American presidents at Mount Rushmore, South Dakota. The work was unfinished at the time of Mr. Borglum's death from surgical complications on March 6, 1941 at the age of 73, but was completed under the supervision of his son Lincoln.

Arturo Toscanini. Italian orchestra conductor. Mr. Toscanini was one of the most famous conductors of the 20th century. His many achievements included service as the first director of the NBC Symphony Orchestra (1937-1954). Mr. Toscanini died on January 16, 1957 at the age of 89.

110 years ago
1907

Hockey
Stanley Cup
Challenge series @ Winnipeg Auditorium
Kenora Thistles 6 Montreal Wanderers 5 (Montreal won 2-game total goals series 12-8)

Fred Whitecroft scored 2 goals, and Tommy Phillips, Alf Smith, Roxy Beaudro, and Si Griffis each scored 1, but it wasn't enough to overcome Montreal's 7-2 lead after the first game as the Wanderers held on to recapture the Cup, which they had lost to the Thistles two months earlier. Moose Johnson scored 2 goals for the Wanderers, with Lester Patrick, Pud Glass, and Ernie Russell also scoring for Montreal.

100 years ago
1917

Religion
The Georgian Orthodox Church restored its autocephaly, which had been abolished by Imperial Russia in 1811.

80 years ago
1937

Hockey
NHL
Stanley Cup
Quarter-Finals
Montreal Maroons 0 @ Boston 4
Toronto 1 @ New York Rangers 2

Montreal defenceman Lionel Conacher took the first penalty shot in Stanley Cup play, and was stopped by goalie Tiny Thompson, who recorded the shutout for the Bruins at Boston Garden.

Babe Pratt scored 13:05 into the 1st overtime period to give the Rangers their win over the Maple Leafs at Madison Square Garden.

75 years ago
1942

War
Japanese troops cut the Toungoo-Mandalay road at Kyungon, Burma. Japanese bombers raided the harbour defenses of Manila Bay, including Corregidor and Bataan.

Diplomacy
U.K. Lord Privy Seal Sir Stafford Cripps was in New Delhi, where he presented to Maulana Abul Kalam Azad and Mohammed Ali Jinnah a secret British plan to settle the issue of Indian self-government. Sir Stafford had been sent to India by Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Secretary of State for India Leo Amery to secure India's full cooperation in the war effort.

Society
U.S. Attorney General Francis Biddle announced that the Justice Department would take steps to revoke U.S. citizenship of foreign-born persons on clear proof that they were disloyal at the time they took their oath of allegiance.

Business
In a consent agreement filed in U.S. District Court in Newark, New Jersey, all patents of Standard Oil Company of New Jersey for manufacture of synthetic rubber and gasoline were made available to American industry for the duration of World War II without payment of royalties.

Basketball
NCAA
NIT @ Madison Square Garden, New York
Final
West Virginia 47 Kentucky 45

70 years ago
1947

Politics and government
Indonesian and Dutch representatives in Batavia signed the Cheribon Agreement, granting de facto recognition to the Republic of Indonesia and providiing for Indonesian sovereignty effective January 1, 1949.

Diplomacy
The U.S. State Department reported that the U.S.S.R. had indicated willingness to hand the port of Darien over to Nationalist Chinese forces as provided for in the Sino-Soviet Treaty of August 14, 1945.

The United States Senate passed a bill authorizing U.S. membership in the International Refugee Organization.

Health
The U.S. Atomic Bomb Casualty Committee reported some abnormalities among children recently born to atomic bomb victims in the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Disasters
111 miners were killed an explosion at a coal mine in Centralia, Illinois; it was the worst such disaster in the United States since 1928.

Flooding from a broken dam on the Oder River near Kustrin caused several deaths and left more than 17,000 Poles and Germans homeless.

Basketball
NCAA
Men's championship @ New York
Final
Holy Cross 58 Oklahoma 47

60 years ago
1957

Literature
United States Customs officials seized copies of Allen Ginsberg's poem Howl (1956) on grounds of obscenity.

Diplomacy
Envoys from France, West Germany, Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands signed the Treaty of Rome, establishing the European Economic Community and the European Community of Atomic Energy.

Canadian Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent began a two-day meeting with British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan in Bermuda.

Energy
U.S. Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Lewis Strauss testified before the Joint Congressional Atomic Energy Committee that the chances against anyone being killed in a U.S. atomic plant explosion under current conditions were 50 million to 1.

Economics and finance
The United States Commerce Department reported that U.S. payments to foreign countries had exceeded recepits by $1 billion this fiscal year.

50 years ago
1967

Hit parade
#1 single in Australia (Kent Music Report): Georgy Girl--The Seekers

#1 single in France: Hey Joe--Johnny Hallyday (4th week at #1)

#1 single in Italy (FIMI): Cuore matto--Little Tony (5th week at #1)

#1 single in West Germany (Media Control): Dear Mrs. Applebee--David Garrick (2nd week at #1)

#1 single in the Netherlands (De Nederlandse Top 40): Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields Forever--The Beatles (4th week at #1)

#1 single in Ireland (IRMA): Release Me (And Let Me Love Again)--Engelbert Humperdinck

#1 single in the U.K. (New Musical Express): Release Me (And Let Me Love Again)--Engelbert Humperdinck (4th week at #1)

#1 single in the U.S.A. (Billboard): Happy Together--The Turtles

U.S.A. Top 10 (Cash Box)
1 Penny Lane--The Beatles (2nd week at #1)
2 Happy Together--The Turtles
3 There's a Kind of Hush--Herman's Hermits
4 Dedicated to the One I Love--The Mamas and the Papas
5 Ruby Tuesday--The Rolling Stones
6 Sock it To Me--Baby!--Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels
7 Baby I Need Your Lovin'--Johnny Rivers
8 Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye--The Casinos
9 My Cup Runneth Over--Ed Ames
10 For What It's Worth--Buffalo Springfield

Singles entering the chart were A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You by the Monkees (#32); Pipe Dream by the Blues Magoos (#73); I'm a Man by the Spencer Davis Group (#76); Can't Get Enough of You, Baby by ? and the Mysterians (#80); Sunday for Tea by Peter and Gordon (#81); I'll Try Anything by Dusty Springfield (#88); Lonely Again by Eddy Arnold (#93); Matthew and Son by Cat Stevens (#97); Hip Hug-Her by Booker T. and the M.G.'s (#99); Nothing Takes the Place of You by Toussaint McCall (#100); and Dead End Street by Lou Rawls (also #100). Pipe Dream was the other side of There's a Chance We Can Make It, charting at #92.

Canada's Top 10 (RPM)
1 Penny Lane--The Beatles
2 Happy Together--The Turtles
3 Sock it To Me--Baby!--Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels
4 Baby I Need Your Lovin'--Johnny Rivers
5 Canada--The Young Canada Singers
6 Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye--The Casinos
7 Dedicated to the One I Love--The Mamas and the Papas
8 For What it's Worth--Buffalo Springfield
9 A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You--The Monkees
10 There's a Kind of Hush--Herman's Hermits

Singles entering the chart were Somethin' Stupid by Nancy Sinatra and Frank Sinatra (#58); Pipe Dream by the Blues Magoos (#79); Hold On I'm Coming by Chuck Jackson and Maxine Brown (#86); Because of You by Chris Montez (#90); Laudy Miss Claudy by the Buckinghams (#91); Mercy, Mercy, Mercy by Marlena Shaw (#93); For He's a Jolly Good Fellow by Bobby Vinton (#96); Gonna Give Her All the Love I've Got by Jimmy Ruffin (#98); and Lonely Again by Eddy Arnold (#100).

40 years ago
1977

Hit parade
#1 single in Sweden (Topplistan): Shenandoah--Jan Lindblad (5th week at #1)

#1 single in West Germany (Media Control): Living Next Door to Alice--Smokie (8th week at #1)

#1 single in France: Do it for Me--Jennifer (2nd week at #1)

On the radio
CBS Radio Mystery Theater
Tonight's episode: A Study in Scarlet, starring Kevin McCarthy and Court Benson

Politics and government
Jacques Chirac was formally elected Mayor of Paris, becoming the first person to hold the office since it was abolished in 1871.

Crime
An all-white jury in New Brunswick, New Jersey convicted Joanne Chesimard, a Negress, of two counts of first-degree murder and six counts of assault and related charges in the 1973 slaying of a New Jersey state trooper and the wounding of another in a shootout on the New Jersey Turnpike. Ms. Chesimard denounced the jury as "racist," charging "You have convicted a woman who had her hands in the air." On the stand, Ms. Chesimard contended that she had never handled a gun and had been shot by one of the troopers while she was emerging from her car, which had been stopped for a defective tail light.

Disasters
30 people were reported dead in an earthquake that struck the mountainous Turkish province of Elazig.

30 years ago
1987

Hit parade
#1 single in Sweden (Topplistan): Caravan of Love--The Housemartins (7th week at #1)

25 years ago
1992

Hit parade
#1 single in Sweden (Topplistan): Stockholm--Orup (2nd week at #1)

On television tonight
The Wonder Years, on ABC
Tonight's episode: Carnal Knowledge

Died on this date
Nancy Walker, 69. U.S. actress. Miss Walker, born Anna Myrtle Swoyer, was a comic actress who achieved success on Broadway, but was best-known for her television appearances in the 1970s, especially as Ida Morgenstern in the series Rhoda (1974-1978). She died of lung cancer.

Space
Russian Cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev returned to Earth from the Mir space station after a 10-month stay, during which his native country, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, had ceased to exist. Flight Engineer Krikalev was part of the five-man crew of Soyuz TM-12, which lifted off on May 18, 1991. When the remaining crew members returned to Earth on October 10, Mr. Krikalev agreed to stay on board Mir for the next mission, Soyuz TM-13 which lifted off on October 2. Soyuz TM-13 was commanded by Aleksandr Volkov, who returned to Earth with Mr. Krikalev.

Defense
United Nations weapons experts in Baghdad began destroying Iraq’s SCUD missile production and repair facilities.

Business
The Canadian government of Prime Minister Brian Mulroney announced that it would lift restrictions on foreign ownership in Canada's oil and gas industry.

Hockey
NHL
Montreal 2 Winnipeg 2

10 years ago
2007

Died on this date
Andranik Margaryan, 55. Prime Minister of Armenia, 2000-2007. Mr. Margaryan, a member of the Republican party, took office as Prime Minister after Aram Sargsyan was dismissed by President Robert Kocharyan. Mr. Margaryan died in office from a heart attack, and was succeeded by Serzh Sargsyan.

Figure skating
Brian Joubert of France won the gold medal in the men's competition at the world championships at Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium. Daisuke Takahashi of Japan won the silver medal, and Stéphane Lambiel of Switzerland won the bronze medal.