July 20, 2017

1,225 years ago
792

War
Kardam of Bulgaria defeated Byzantine Emperor Constantine VI in the Battle of Marcellae in southeastern Bulgaria.

425 years ago
1592

Born on this date
Johan Björnsson Printz. Swedish politician. Mr. Printz was a lieutenant colonel in the Swedish Army who was dismissed for surrendering the Saxon town of Chemnitz. He was restored to the favour of Queen Christina, and served as Governor of New Sweden--in what is now Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania--from 1643-1653. Mr. Printz reportedly weighed over 400 pounds, and established friendly relations with the Indians as well as with English settlers, and traded with Dutch settlers. Dissent within New Sweden led Mr. Printz to resign, and he resigned and returned to Sweden, where he was made a general and died on May 3, 1663 at the age of 70.

War
During the first Japanese invasion of Korea, Japanese forces led by Toyotomi Hideyoshi captured Pyongyang, although they were ultimately unable to hold it.

210 years ago
1807

Technology
Nicéphore and Claude Niépce were awarded a patent by French Emperor Napoleon I for the Pyréolophore, the world's first internal combustion engine, after it successfully powered a boat upstream on the river Saône in France.

120 years ago
1897

Born on this date
Tadeusz Reichstein. Polish-born Swiss chemist. Dr. Reichstein succeeded in synthesizing vitamin C and shared the 1950 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Philip Hench and Edward Kendall "for their discoveries relating to the hormones of the adrenal cortex, their structure and biological effects," which culminated in the isolation of cortisone. Dr. Reichstein died on August 1, 1996, 12 days after his 99th birthday.

100 years ago
1917

Born on this date
Don Black. U.S. baseball pitcher. Mr. Black played with the Philadelphia Athletics (1943-1945) and Cleveland Indians (1946-1948), compiling a record of 34-55 with an earned run average of 4.35 in 154 games. Heavy drinking hurt his career in the mid-1940s, but he joined Alcoholic Anonymous and was sober by the start of the 1947 season. Mr. Black pitched a no-hitter with the Petersburg Rebels of the Virginia League in 1941, and another with the Indians on July 10, 1947. While batting on September 13, 1948, he suffered a cerebral hemorrhage, which almost proved fatal. A brief attempt at a comeback was unsuccessful, and Mr. Black held various jobs until he died of a heart attack at the age of 41 on April 21, 1959, while watching an Indians game on television.

War
The U.S. draft lottery began.

Europeana
The Corfu Declaration, which led to the creation of the post-war Kingdom of Yugoslavia, was signed by the Yugoslav Committee and Kingdom of Serbia.

90 years ago
1927

Died on this date
Ferdinand I, 61. King of Romania, 1914-1927. Ferdinand I was the son of Leopold, Prince of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, who renounced his claim to the throne. Ferdinand succeeded his uncle Carol I as King upon his death in 1914, but wasn't crowned until 1922. Despite being of the same family as Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, King Ferdinand took Romania into World War I on the side of the Allies against the Central Powers, leading the Kaiser to have Ferdinand's name erased from the Hohenzollern family register. King Ferdinand I died of cancer and was succeeded by his grandson Michael I.

80 years ago
1937

Died on this date
Guglielmo Marconi, 63. Italian physicist and engineer. Mr. Marconi, widely regarded as the inventor of radio, shared the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physics with Karl Braun "for their contributions to the development of wireless telegraphy." He joined the Italian Fascist Party in 1923, and supported the regime of Duce Benito Mussolini. Mr. Marconi died after a series of heart attacks.

Tennis
Down 2-0 in sets and 4-1 in games in the third set, Don Budge of the United States defeated Baron Gottfried von Cramm of Germany 8-6 on the sixth match point in the fifth set of the Davis Cup semi-finals at Wimbledon , England, enabling the U.S.A. to defeat England the following week in the finals. The story of the match and its principals was told in the book A Terrible Splendor by Marshall Jon Fisher (2009).

75 years ago
1942

War
British Royal Air Force planes attacked an Axis airfield near Fuka, reportedly setting at least 30 planes afire, and also setting fire to enemy barges off Sidi Barrani. Russian forces claimed to have secured Don River bridgeheads 10 miles west of Voronezh.

Diplomacy
The Swedish ocean liner Grispholm arrived in Portuguese East Africa with Thai and Japanese nationals from the United States.

Politics and government
Colombian President Eduardo Santos presided over the opening session of Congress, stating that the nation's cause was tied to the Allies.

Literature
Robert Garrett donated his collection of 6,000 Arabic and Islamic manuscripts--said to be the largest and best in the world--to Princeton University.

70 years ago
1947

War
Dutch forces attacked Indonesian Republic installations on Java and Sumatra, and arrested Indonesian officials, including Deputy Prime Minister A.K. Gani, in Batavia. Dutch officials denied any "designs on the integrity" of Indonesia, justifying the action as a response to alleged truce violations by Indonesian nationalists.

Crime
Burmese police arrested conservative politician and former Prime Minister U Saw and 19 aides in Rangoon on charges of planning the previous day's assassination of eight people, including Prime Minister Aung San.

Economics and finance
Poland joined France in protesting U.S. plans to speed German economic recovery, claiming that countries that had suffered at Germany's hands should have priority in reconstruction.

60 years ago
1957

Hit parade
#1 single in Australia (Kent Music Report): Round and Round--Perry Como; The Four Lads (5th week at #1)

#1 single in West Germany (Media Control): Banana Boat Song--Harry Belafonte (2nd week at #1)

#1 single in the U.K. (Record Mirror): All Shook Up--Elvis Presley (2nd week at #1)

U.S.A. Top 10 (Cash Box)
1 (Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear--Elvis Presley
2 Love Letters in the Sand--Pat Boone
3 Bye Bye Love--The Everly Brothers
4 So Rare--Jimmy Dorsey and his Orchestra
5 It's Not for Me to Say--Johnny Mathis
6 I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter--Billy Williams
7 Searchin'--The Coasters
8 Old Cape Cod--Patti Page
9 Dark Moon--Gale Storm
--Bonnie Guitar
10 (Main Theme) Around the World--Victor Young and his Orchestra
--Mantovani and his Orchestra

Singles entering the chart were Tammy by Richard Hayman and his Orchestra (#23, charting with the versions by Debbie Reynolds, and the Ames Brothers); Oh Baby Doll by Chuck Berry (#45); Goody Goody by Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers (#49); By the Bend of the River by Joe Leahy and his Orchestra (#57); and An Affair to Remember (Our Love Affair) by Vic Damone (#59). An Affair to Remember (Our Love Affair) was from the movie An Affair to Remember (1957).

Died on this date
Alfred Einstein Cohen, 78. U.S. physician. Dr. Cohen was a research heart specialist at the Rockefeller Institute who introduced the use of the electrocardiogram.

World events
Alianza Popular Revolucionaria Americana (APRA) leader Victor Raul Haya de la Torre returned to Peru after eight years of exile in the Colombian embassy in Lima.

Transportation
The U.S.S.R. closed the Vladivostok waters of Peter the Great Bay to foreign ships and planes.

Auto racing
Stirling Moss won the European Grand Prix in Aintree, England.

50 years ago
1967

Hit parade
#1 single in Ireland (IRMA): Black Velvet Band--Johnny Kelly (2nd week at #1)

Music
The Monkees performed at War Memorial Auditorium in Buffalo.

Edmontonia
The annual Klondike Days parade took place downtown; this blogger saw it for the first time, watching from the roof of The Steak Loft with his father. Canadian Prime Minister Lester Pearson ahd his wife arrived in the city that afternoon to take in the festivities.

Protest
Three days of race riots in Cairo, Illinois concluded with just one injury--a stabbing--but at last six firebombings, with three stores and a warehouse burned down.

40 years ago
1977

Hit parade
#1 single in the U.K. (New Musical Express): I Feel Love--Donna Summer

Died on this date
Gary Kellgren, 38. U.S. recording engineer. Mr. Kellgren co-founded The Record Plant studios in New York and California, which provided a more relaxed atmosphere for artists than had previously been the case. He worked with artists such as Jimi Hendrix, Frank Zappa, and Barbra Streisand. Mr. Kellgren and his girlfriend Kristianne Gaines, 34, were found dead at the bottom of his swimming pool in Hollywood in what was called an accidental double drowning. It was speculated that Mr. Kellgren had been electrocuted while trying to fix underwater speakers, and Miss Gaines, who couldn't swim, had drowned trying to save him.

Diplomacy
Concluding two days of talks in Washington with Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, U.S. President Jimmy Carter expressed confidence that a Geneva peace conference on the Middle East would be convened as early as October. Several hours later, Mr. Begin outlined his hitherto secret framework for Geneva talks, excluding any role for the Palestine Liberation Organization, whose participation was a basic demand of all Arab countries.

Abominations
The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency released documents under the Freedom of Information Act revealing that it had engaged in mind-control experiments.

Scandal
Former Watergate special prosecutor Leon Jaworski accepted a U.S. House of Representatives Ethics Committee invitation to take charge of the investigation of allegations that Korean businessman Tong Sun Park was buying influence in the United States Congress.

Economics and finance
The British House of Commons passed anti-inflation legislation.

Disasters
A night-long 7-inch rainfall caused a flash flood in Johnstown, Pennsylvania and surrounding communities, killing 80 people, leaving 2,000 homeless, and causing $350 million in damage.

Football
CFL
Montreal (2-0) 16 @ Toronto (0-2) 10
British Columbia (2-0) 34 @ Saskatchewan (0-2) 14

Doug Carlson returned a fumble 88 yards for a touchdown to help the Lions upset the Roughriders at Taylor Field in Regina.

30 years ago
1987

Hit parade
#1 single in Australia (Australian Music Report): Respectable--Mel and Kim

Died on this date
Richard Egan, 65. U.S. actor. Mr. Egan appeared in such movies as The Damned Don't Cry (1950); Bright Victory (1951); One Minute to Zero (1952); Underwater! (1955); Love Me Tender (1956); Slaughter on Tenth Avenue (1957); A Summer Place (1959); and Moonfire (1970). He died of prostate cancer, nine days before his 66th birthday.

25 years ago
1992

Hit parade
#1 single in Finland (Musiikkituottajat – IFPI Finland): Lithium--Nirvana

Politics and government
Vaclav Havel resigned as President of Czechoslovakia, three days after the Slovak National Council had voted overwhelmingly in favour of sovereignty for Slovakia.

20 years ago
1997

Hit parade
#1 single in Australia (ARIA): MMMBop--Hanson (8th week at #1)

#1 single in New Zealand (RIANZ): I'll Be Missing You--Puff Daddy and Faith Evans featuring 112 (3rd week at #1)

#1 single in Austria (Ö3): I'll Be Missing You--Puff Daddy and Faith Evans featuring 112

#1 single in Switzerland: I'll Be Missing You--Puff Daddy and Faith Evans featuring 112

Defense
The restored U.S. Navy frigate USS Constitution celebrated its 200th anniversary by setting sail for the first time in 116 years.

10 years ago
2007

Died on this date
Tammy Faye Bakker Messner, 65. U.S. televangelist. Mrs. Messner, born Tamara LaValley, was the daughter of Pentecostal preachers, and was married to Jim Bakker from 1961-1992. The two founded the PTL Club (Praise the Lord) television program in 1974, and spent years preaching a false gospel of financial prosperity, using donations from viewers to finance their opulent lifestyle. The "ministry," which included the Heritage USA theme park, collapsed in sex and financial scandals in 1987, and Mr. Bakker went to prison for fraud. The couple divorced, and Mrs. Bakker married building contractor and family friend Roe Messner in 1993. Mrs. Messner spent her final years promoting alternative medicine and becoming a sodomite icon, appearing in sodomy pride parades. She died after an 11-year battle with cancer, which I suspected may have been caused or exacerbated by chemicals from the outrageously large amounts of makeup she always covered herself with.

Law
The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, voting almost totally along party lines, voted 13-6 to approve the nomination of Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court.

Football
CFL
Saskatchewan (2-2) 20 @ Edmonton (2-1-1) 21

Sean Fleming kicked a 47-yard field goal with 2:07 left in regulation time to give the Eskimos their win over the Roughriders as they overcame a 20-1 halftime deficit before 46,704 fans at Commonwealth Stadium. Kerry Joseph completed a 19-yard touchdown pass to D.J. Flick in the 2nd quarter, and Jason Armstead followed with a 90-yard punt return TD to give Saskatchewan its big lead. The Eskimos scored a touchdown just 1:41 into the 3rd quarter on a 5-yard pass from backup quarterback Stefan LeFors to defensive end Rob Brown, who had entered the game on offense. 4 minutes later, Ricky Ray threw an 11-yard TD pass to Jason Tucker. Mr. Fleming converted both and added a 29-yard FG later in the quarter to make the score 20-18. Mr. Ray completed 31 of 44 passes for 349 yards, with Mr. Tucker catching 5 passes for 91 yards.