June 17, 2017

240 years ago
1777

War
General John Burgoyne left St.-Jean, Quebec and marched south with a force of 7,700 British and German regulars, plus Canadians and Indians and 138 artillery pieces.

150 years ago
1867

Born on this date
Flora Finch. U.K.-born U.S. actress. Miss Finch was born into a theatrical family in England and moved to the United States as a child. She worked in theatre and vaudeville, but made her mark in cinema, appearing in more than 300 silent films, including more than 200 with Vitagraph Studios. Miss Finch teamed up with John Bunny to star in 160 short comedy films from 1910-1915, and they became the first popular comedy team in movie history. Mr. Bunny died in 1915, and Miss Finch was never able to recapture her former popularity. She died of blood poisoning on January 4, 1940 at the age of 72, after accidentally cutting her arm.

140 years ago
1877

War
The Nez Perce defeated the U.S. Cavalry in the Battle of White Bird Canyon in Idaho Territory.

120 years ago
1897

Died on this date
Sebastian Kneipp, 76. German clergyma and naturopath. Rev. Kneipp was a Roman Catholic priest who was primarily known as one of the founders of naturopathinc medicine; he was particularly associated with the "Kneipp Cure" form of hydrotherapy. Rev. Kneipp died a month after his 76th birthday.

100 years ago
1917

Born on this date
Duff Roblin. Canadian politician. Mr. Roblin, a Progressive Conservative and the grandson of Manitoba Premier Sir Rodmond Roblin, was a member of the Manitoba Legislative Assembly from 1949-1968, and was Premier from 1958-1967. As Premier, Mr. Roblin led a government that increased spending on social welfare and education. He campaigned unsuccessfully for federal office, but represented the Manitoba region of Red River in the Senate from 1978-1992, serving as Government Leader in the Senate from 1984-1986. Mr. Roblin died on May 30, 2010, 18 days before his 93rd birthday.

90 years ago
1927

Golf
Tommy Armour shot a 4-over-par 76, finishing 3 strokes ahead of Harry Cooper in an 18-hole playoff to win the U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club in Oakmont, Pennsylvania. First prize money was $500.

75 years ago
1942

Died on this date
Charles Fitzpatrick, 88. Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, 1906-1918. Sir Charles, a Liberal, sat in the Quebec Legislative Assembly from 1890-1896, and then entered federal politics, representing Quebec County in the House of Commons from 1896-1906. He was in the cabinet of Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier as Solicitor General from 1896-1902 and as Minister of Justice and Attorney General from 1902-1906. Sir Charles retired from the bench to serve as Lieutenant-Governor of Quebec from 1918-1923.

War
Japanese bombers attacked Port Moresby, New Guinea.

70 years ago
1947

At the movies
The Upturned Glass, directed by Lawrence Huntington, and starring James Mason, Rosamund John, and Pamela Kellino, received its premiere screening in London.



War
Chinese Communist forces established a beachhead near Tientsin as the U.S. Marine detachment stationed there withdrew to nearby Tangku harbour.

Economics and finance
U.K. Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin arrived in Paris to confer with French Foreign Minister Georges Bidault on European recovery needs to be filled through U.S. Marshall Plan aid.

The U.S. House of Representatives unexpectedly sustained President Harry Truman's veto of the congressional tax reduction bill when its vote to override the veto fell two votes short of the required two-thirds majority.

Asiatica
The Burmese Constituent Assembly voted to establish Burma as an independent republic.

Business
The German chemical industry combine I.G. Farben was officially divided into 47 separate firms under the authority of the Allied Control Council.

Science
Harvard University chemist Robert Woodward announced that he had synthesized a new protein from amino acids which could be used in the production of synthetic textiles and plastics.

60 years ago
1957

Hit parade
#1 singles in the U.S.A. (Billboard): Love Letters in the Sand/Bernardine--Pat Boone (Best Seller--3rd week at #1); Love Letters in the Sand--Pat Boone (Disc Jockey--2nd week at #1; Top 100--2nd week at #1); All Shook Up--Elvis Presley (Jukebox--9th week at #1)

This was the last week in which the Jukebox chart was published.

Died on this date
Dorothy Richardson, 84. U.K. author. Miss Richardson was one of the first novelists to use stream of consciousness as a narrative technique. She was best known for her 13-novel series Pilgrimage.

J. R. Williams, 69. Canadian-born U.S. cartoonist. James Robert Williams, a native of Nova Scotia, moved to Detroit at the age of 15. He created the comic panel Out Our Way, which began running in newspapers on March 30, 1922. Mr. Williams was active until his death; Out Our Way was continued by others until 1977.

Politics and government
Canadian Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent announced the resignation of his Liberal government in order to permit Progressive Conservative leader John Diefenbaker to form a government. The PCs had won 112 seats in the June 10 federal election to 105 for the Liberals, with 133 seats needed for a majority. Prime Minister St. Laurent chose not to make a deal with the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation or Social Credit Party in order to retain power, thus ending 22 straight years of Liberal rule.

The Jordanian cabinet approved the suspension of Parliament for three months.

Defense
The U.S. House of Representatives passed and sent to the Senate a bill extending the War Power Act, continuing the President's special mobilization and defense-contract authority, for another year.

Law
The U.S. Supreme Court reversed the contempt-of-Congress conviction of Unted Auto Workers official John Thomas Watkins, who had refused to identify former Communist associates to the House of Representatives Committee on Un-American activities. The Court ruled that the Smith Act did not outlaw "advocacy of forcible overthrow [of the government] as an abstract doctrine," but was restricted to "advocacy and teaching of concrete action for the forcible overthrow of the government." The decision freed five California Communist leaders and ordered new trials for nine others convicted under the act. The U.S. Supreme Court also ruled unanimously that then-Secretary of State Dean Acheson had wrongfully discharged Foreign Service officer John Stewart Service as a security risk in 1951.

50 years ago
1967

Hit parade
#1 single in Australia (Kent Music Report): This is My Song--Petula Clark (4th week at #1)

#1 single in France: A Whiter Shade of Pale--Procol Harum (5th week at #1)

#1 single in Italy (FIMI): A chi--Fausto Leali (2nd week at #1)

#1 single in West Germany (Media Control): Puppet on a String--Sandie Shaw (5th week at #1)

#1 single in the Netherlands (De Nederlandse Top 40): A Whiter Shade of Pale--Procol Harum

#1 single in the U.K. (New Musical Express): A Whiter Shade of Pale--Procol Harum (2nd week at #1)

#1 single in the U.S.A. (Billboard): Groovin'--The Young Rascals (3rd week at #1)

U.S.A. Top 10 (Cash Box)
1 Respect--Aretha Franklin (2nd week at #1)
2 Groovin'--The Young Rascals
3 Release Me (And Let Me Love Again)--Engelbert Humperdinck
4 I Got Rhythm--The Happenings
5 Somebody to Love--Jefferson Airplane
6 She'd Rather Be with Me--The Turtles
7 Windy--The Association
8 All I Need--The Temptations
9 Sunday Will Never Be the Same--Spanky and Our Gang
10 Little Bit o' Soul--The Music Explosion

Singles entering the chart were More Love by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles (#72); Love Me Tender by Percy Sledge (#81); You Wanted Someone to Play With (I Wanted Someone to Love) by Frankie Laine (#83); Mercy, Mercy, Mercy by the Buckinghams (#84); Lonely Drifter by Pieces of Eight (#86); (I Wanna) Testify by the Parliaments (#87); Black Sheep by Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs (#89); Soul Dance Number Three by Wilson Pickett (#91); and One by One by the Blues Magoos (#94).

Canada's Top 10 (RPM)
1 Somebody to Love--Jefferson Airplane
2 Him or Me - What's it Gonna Be?--Paul Revere and the Raiders
3 Respect--Aretha Franklin
4 Creeque Alley--The Mamas and the Papas
5 Groovin'--The Young Rascals
6 Mirage--Tommy James and the Shondells
7 Release Me (And Let Me Love Again)--Engelbert Humperdinck
8 She'd Rather Be with Me--The Turtles
9 Here Comes My Baby--The Tremeloes
10 All I Need--The Temptations

Singles entering the chart were Light My Fire by the Doors (#82); Plastic Man by Sonny and Cher (#83); One by One by the Blues Magoos (#84); Shake, Rattle and Roll by Arthur Conley (#89); Night and Day by Sergio Mendes and Brasil '66 (#90); Stay Together, Young Lovers by Brenda and the Tabulations (#92); Ooh Baby Baby by the Five Stairsteps (#94); Soul Finger by the Bar-Kays (#95); Summer and Sandy by Lesley Gore (#96); The Jokers by Peter and Gordon (#97); Now I Know by Jack Jones (#99); and Come Back Girl by Jackie Edwards (#100). The Jokers was the title song of the movie.

Vancouver's Top 10 (CFUN)
1 Windy--The Association (2nd week at #1)
2 She'd Rather Be with Me--The Turtles
3 Come on Down to My Boat--Every Mother's Son
4 San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)--Scott McKenzie
5 Hip Hug-Her--Booker T. and the M.G.'s
6 Respect--Aretha Franklin
7 Round Round--Jonathan King
8 Him or Me - What's it Gonna Be?--Paul Revere and the Raiders
9 Don't Sleep in the Subway--Petula Clark
10 Sunday Will Never Be the Same--Spanky and Our Gang

Singles entering the chart were A Whiter Shade of Pale by Procol Harum (#42); Mr. Pleasant by the Kinks (#43); I was Made to Love Her by Stevie Wonder (#44); This Time Long Ago by the Guess Who (#46); More Love by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles (#47); Shake, Rattle and Roll by Arthur Conley (#48); The River is Wide by the Forum (#49); and Here We Go Again by Ray Charles (#50).

Vancouver's Top 10 (CKLG)
1 Windy--The Association (3rd week at #1)
2 San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)--Scott McKenzie
3 She'd Rather Be with Me--The Turtles
4 Little Bit o' Soul--The Music Explosion
5 Come on Down to My Boat--Every Mother's Son
6 Pay You Back with Interest--The Hollies
7 The Tracks of My Tears--Johnny Rivers
8 Round Round--Jonathan King
9 7 Rooms of Gloom--Four Tops
10 Let's Live for Today--The Grass Roots

Singles entering the chart were Ding! Dong! The Witch is Dead by the Fifth Estate (#24); A Whiter Shade of Pale by Procol Harum (#26); I was Made to Love Her by Stevie Wonder (#28); Soul Finger by the Bar-Kays (#29); and This Time Long Ago by the Guess Who (#30).

Defense
The People's Republic of China announced a successful test of its first hydrogen bomb.

40 years ago
1977

Hit parade
#1 single in Sweden (Topplistan): Ain't that Just the Way--Barbi Benton (7th week at #1)

#1 single in West Germany (Media Control): Ma Baker--Boney M. (2nd week at #1)

#1 single in France: Rockollection--Laurent Voulzy

30 years ago
1987

Hit parade
#1 single in Sweden (Topplistan): I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)--Whitney Houston (3rd week at #1)

Died on this date
Dick Howser, 51. U.S. baseball player, coach, and manager. Mr. Howser was a shortstop with the Kansas City Athletics (1961-1963); Cleveland Indians (1963-1966); and New York Yankees (1967-1968), batting .248 in 789 games, with 16 home runs and 165 runs batted in. He was the Yankees' third base coach from 1969-1978, managing the team for one game in 1978. In 1980 he managed the Yankees for the full season, guiding the club to an American League East Division pennant with a record of 103 wins and 59 losses. However, the Yankees were defeated in 3 straight game by the Kansas City Royals in the AL Championship Series, and when he refused to follow owner George Steinbrenner's order to fire third base coach Mike Ferraro after a botched play at home plate, Mr. Howser departed. He was hired by the Royals as their manager during the 1981 season, and led them to the second-half division title in a split-season schedule. The Royals won the East Division pennant in 1984, and captured their only World Series in 1985, coming back from a 3-1 deficit in games to defeat the Toronto Blue Jays in the ALCS, and winning the last 2 games to defeat the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series. Mr. Howser was diagnosed with a brain tumor while he was managing the AL All-Stars in 1986, and he resigned as manager after the game. An attempt at a comeback in 1987 ended early in spring training. In 8 seasons as a major league manager, Mr. Howser compiled a record of 507-425.

Orange Band, 9-13 (?). U.S. dusky seaside sparrow. Orange Band, a male, was the last known specimen of the seaside sparrow subspecies, which inhabited the natural salt marshes of Merritt Island and along the St. Johns River in Florida. The dusky seaside sparrow was declared extinct in 1990.

Terrorism
American Broadcasting Company correspondent Charles Glass, who was on leave of absence to write a book about the Middle East, was kidnapped in Beirut along with the son of the Lebanese defense minister and his driver. The Organization for the Defense of Free People, a group previously unknown, claimed responsibility for the kidnappings.

25 years ago
1992

Hit parade
#1 single in Sweden (Topplistan): It's My Life--Dr. Alban (4th week at #1)

Personal
This blogger continued his Quebec vacation, arriving in Sherbrooke.

Abominations
Hundreds of armed Negroes in South Africa attacked residents in the Boipatong settlement south of Johannesburg, killing 42 men, women, and children. African National Congress leaders charged the administration of President F.W. de Klerk with participation in the attack, a charge which Mr. de Klerk vigorously denied.

Diplomacy
U.S. President George Bush and Russian President Boris Yeltsin concluded their summit in Washington by signing bilateral agreements, including one to turn their agreement to reduce their nations’ numbers of strategic weapons into a formal treaty. Mr. Yeltsin addressed the United States Congress in Washington, D.C., saying that if even one American serviceman were being held in Russia, he would get the soldier back to his family. Five days earlier, a U.S. Senate committee had received a letter from Mr. Yeltsin disclosing that the U.S.S.R. had held and later released 716 American servicemen during World War II. During his flight to the United States on June 15, Mr. Yeltsin had said that some U.S. prisoners of the North Vietnamese had been sent to Soviet labour camps during the Vietnam War. On June 16, U.S. President George Bush announced that Malcolm Toon, a former U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union, would go to Russia to study the Soviet archives.

Terrorism
Shiite guerrillas in Lebanon freed Heinrich Struebig and Thomas Kemptner, German relief workers who had been kidnapped in 1989, and were the last Western hostages known to be in custody in Lebanon.

20 years ago
1997

Hockey
NHL
The National Hockey League approved expansion to 4 more cities: Nashville; Atlanta; Columbus; and St. Paul.

Football
CFL
The Edmonton Eskimos traded receiver Shalon Baker to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers for the Blue Bombers' second draft choice in 1999 and future considerations. Mr. Baker, "The Touchdown Maker," was the Canadian Football League's Most Outstanding Rookie in 1995, but his productivity declined in 1996. This blogger was in attendance at the Eskimos' practice at Concordia College when Mr. Baker was called off the practice field, which led me to correctly assume that he'd been traded.

Pre-season
British Columbia (1-1) 18 @ Calgary (2-0) 30

10 years ago
2007

Golf
Ángel Cabrera of Argentina became the first South American to win the U.S. Open, finishing the tournament at Oakmont Country Club in Oakmont, Pennsylvania with a 5-over-par total of 285, 1 stroke ahead of Tiger Woods and Jim Furyk. First prize money was $1,260,000.