February 11, 2018

Born on this date
Happy Birthday, Maria Nastas!

190 years ago
1828

Died on this date
DeWitt Clinton, 58. U.S. politician. Mr. Clinton, a Democratic-Republican, was a nephew of U.S. Vice President George Clinton, and represented New York in the United States Senate (1802-1803) before serving as Mayor of New York City (1803-1807, 1808-1810, 1811-1815), Lieutenant Governor of New York (1811-1813), and Governor of New York (1817-1822, 1825-1828). He was the Federalist Party candidate for President of the United States in 1812, losing to incumbent James Madison. As Governor, Mr. Clinton presided over the construction of the Erie Canal, and influence the improvement of infrastructure throughout the United States. Mr. Clinton died suddenly in office, 19 days before his 59th birthday, and was succeeded as Governor of New York by Nathaniel Pitcher.

175 years ago
1843

Opera
I Lombardi alla prima crociata by Giuseppe Verdi received its premiere performance in Milan.

100 years ago
1918

Economics and finance
The Canadian government set up the Food Board, controlled by Ministry of Agriculture, replacing the Food Controller.

90 years ago
1928

Aviation
French aviators Dieudonne Costes and Joseph Lebrix flew from Washington, D.C. to Mitchell Field, Long Island, ending their 23,000-mile flight in the Breguet biplane Nungesser-Coli from Paris via Africa, the South Atlantic, and South and Central America.

Olympics
The second Winter Olympics opened at St. Moritz, Switzerland.

80 years ago
1938

On television tonight
R.U.R., on BBC

This adaptation of the play by Carel Čapek, which introduced the term "robot," was the first science fiction story to be broadcast on television.

75 years ago
1943

War
Dwight D. Eisenhower was nominated to the rank of general by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt as he assumed command of the British 8th Army and was selected to command the Allied armies in Europe. U.K. Prime Miniser Winston Churchill addressed the House of Commons about the recent Casablanca Conference and promised a major offensive within the next nine months. Soviet forces in Ukraine captured Lozovaya, cutting the Kharkov-Crimea railroad. British troops made contact with German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel's forces east of Ben Gardane in southeastern Tunisia. U.S. and U.K. commanders met in New Delhi with Chinese Nationalist leader Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, reaching agreement on military operations in Southeast Asia. Allied forces pushed Japanese troops back six miles in the Wau-Mubo area of New Guinea.

Law
U.S. President Roosevelt nominated Thurman Arnold as an associate justice of the U.S. Court of Appeals in the District of Columbia.

Economics and finance
The Canadian government imposed severe wartime gasoline rationing of 10 gallons a month for every private car.

Labour
Florida Circuit Court Judge J.L. Parks voided the closed shop agreement between the Tampa Shipbuilding Company and 14 American Federation of Labor unions, because the company was doing war work.

70 years ago
1948

Died on this date
Sergei Eisenstein, 50. U.S.S.R. film director. Mr. Eisenstein was a pioneer in the use of montage, and was known for films such as Strike (1925); Battleship Potemkin (1925); October (1928); Alexander Nevsky (1938); and the two-part epic Ivan the Terrible (1944, 1958). He died of a heart attack, 20 days after his 50th birthday.

Music
The Soviet Communist Party's Central Committee criticized composers Dmitri Shostakovich, Sergei Prokofiev, and Aram Khachaturian for writing "anti-democratic" music and abandoning Russian traditions of melody.

Adventure
A five-man Latin American team scaled Mount Aconcagua in Argentina, which at 23,081 feet, is the highest peak in the Western Hemisphere.

Transportation
Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish airlines merged to form the Scandinavian Airlines System.

Labour
A U.S. federal grand jury in Washington, D.C. indicted the Congress of Industrial Organizations and its president, Philip Murray, on charges of violating the Taft-Hartley Act's ban on political expenditures by labour and employer organizations.

60 years ago
1958
At the movies
The Gift of Love, directed by Jean Negulesco, and starring Lauren Bacall and Robert Stack, opened in theatres.



Diplomacy
The Tunisian government ordered further evacuations of French civilians and demanded the closure of five French consulates.

The Dominican Republic asked former Argentine President Juan Peron to leave the country "without delay" for violating his conditions of asylum by using the Dominican mails to send instructions to his Argentine followers.

U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles announced that the United States no longer considered it "essential" for proposed East-West summit talks to be preceded by a conference of foreign ministers.

Politics and government
The Indonesian government of President Sukarno and Prime Minister Djuanda rejected an ultimatum from insurgent Army and political leaders on Sumatra calling for the formation of a new central government by former Vice President Mohammed Hatta.

Labour
The U.S. Labor and Commerce Departments reported that unemployment had risen from 3,374,000 in mid-December 1957 to 4,494,000 in mid-January 1958, the highest mid-winter increase since the government had begun recording such data in 1941.

50 years ago
1968

Died on this date
Howard Lindsay, 78. U.S. playwright, actor, and producer. Mr. Lindsay, born Herman Nelke, teamed with Russel Crouse to write Broadway plays from 1935-1962, winning the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for State of the Union (1946). Mr. Lindsay also wrote and acted with his wife Dorothy Stickney, and the two co-starred in Life with Father on Broadway in New York in 1939.

Americana
The fourth Madison Square Garden opened in New York.

Disasters
11 people died in a house fire in Franklin, Pennsylvania.

Golf
Tom Weiskopf won the Andy Williams-San Diego Open with a score of 273; first prize money was $30,000.

40 years ago
1978

Hit parade
#1 single in Italy (Hit Parade Italia): Solo Tu--Matia Bazar (10th week at #1)

#1 single in Switzerland: Mull of Kintyre--Wings (3rd week at #1)

#1 single in Ireland: Mull of Kintyre--Wings (10th week at #1)

#1 single in the U.K. (BMRB): Figaro--The Brotherhood of Man

#1 single in the U.S.A. (Billboard): Stayin' Alive--Bee Gees (2nd week at #1)

Netherlands Top 10 (De Nederlandse Top 40)
1 If I Had Words--Scott Fitzgerald and Yvonne Keeley with the St. Thomas More School Choir (3rd week at #1)
2 Mull of Kintyre--Wings
3 It's a Heartache--Bonnie Tyler
4 Singin' in the Rain--Sheila B. Devotion
5 Smurfenbier--Vader Abraham
6 Take a Chance on Me--ABBA
7 Lailola - No Ablas Mas--José e Los Reyes
8 Is Je Moeder Niet Thuis--Nico Haak
9 She's Not There--Santana
10 Black Betty--Ram Jam

Singles entering the chart were Stayin' Alive by the Bee Gees (#24); Galaxy by War (#28); Big City by Tol Hansse (#30); Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll by Ian Dury (#31); All for a Reason by Alessi (#31); Gloria by Dee Jay (#37); and Red Hot by Robert Gordon with Link Wray (#38).

U.S.A. Top 10 (Cash Box)
1 Stayin' Alive--Bee Gees (2nd week at #1)
2 Short People--Randy Newman
3 Just the Way You Are--Billy Joel
4 Baby Come Back--Player
5 We are the Champions--Queen
6 Sometimes When We Touch--Dan Hill
7 Dance, Dance, Dance (Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah)--Chic
8 Emotion--Samantha Sang
9 (Love Is) Thicker than Water--Andy Gibb
10 You're in My Heart (The Final Acclaim)--Rod Stewart

Singles entering the chart were Hot Legs by Rod Stewart (#77); Thank You for Being a Friend by Andrew Gold (#78); The Circle is Small (I Can See it in Your Eyes) by Gordon Lightfoot (#83); Flash Light by Parliament (#84); California by Debby Boone (#85); Running on Empty by Jackson Browne (#86); Fooling Yourself (The Angry Young Man) by Styx (#87); Disco Inferno by the Trammps (#88); The Closer I Get to You by Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway (#89); Shout it Out by B.T. Express (#97); and Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys by Waylon and Willie (#98).

Canada's top 10 (RPM)
1 Baby Come Back--Player
2 You're in My Heart (The Final Acclaim)--Rod Stewart
3 We are the Champions--Queen
4 Sometimes When We Touch--Dan Hill
5 Short People--Randy Newman
6 Slip Slidin' Away--Paul Simon
7 Here You Come Again--Dolly Parton
8 Desiree--Neil Diamond
9 Turn to Stone--Electric Light Orchestra
10 Just the Way You Are--Billy Joel

Singles entering the chart included The Circle is Small (I Can See it in Your Eyes) by Gordon Lightfoot (#79); Let it Go, Let it Flow by Dave Mason (#85); So Long by Firefall (#91); Poor Poor Pitiful Me by Linda Ronstadt (#93); Before My Heart Finds Out by Gene Cotton (#96); What a Difference You've Made in My Life by Ronnie Milsap (#98); and Ebony Eyes by Bob Welch (#100).

Died on this date
James B. Conant, 84. U.S. chemist, academic, and diplomat. Dr. Conant was a professor of chemistry at Harvard University before serving as the university's President from 1933-1953. He implemented numerous reforms, including the abolition of class rankings and athletic scholarships, and an "up or out" tenure policy. Dr. Conant served as chairman of the National Defense Research Committee during World War II, and was an adviser on atomic energy in the late 1940s. He was U.S. High Commissioner for Germany from 1953-1955, and U.S. Ambassador to West Germany from 1955-1957. Dr. Conant died after a series of strokes.

Harry Martinson, 73. Swedish author and poet. Mr. Martinson was awarded a share of the 1974 Nobel Prize in Literature "for writings that catch the dewdrop and reflect the cosmos." The co-winner was fellow Swede Eyvind Johnson, and the award was heavily criticized, since both men were members of the Swedish Academy and thus on the Nobel Prize panel. Mr. Martinson apparently never recovered from the criticism over the award, and committed suicide by cutting his stomach open with a pair of scissors in a form of hara-kiri.

Literature
The government of the People's Republic of China lifted a ban on works by Aristotle, William Shakespeare, and Charles Dickens.

Diplomacy
Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, on his way home after visits to the United States, United Kingdom, and West Germany, met in Salzburg with former Israeli Prime Minister and current opposition leader Shimon Peres. The meeting was arranged by Austrian Chancellor Bruno Kreisky.

Disasters
Pacific Western Airlines Flight 314, a Boeing 737 jet en route from Edmonton to Castlegar via Calgary and Cranbrook, crash-landed at Cranbrook, British Columbia, killing 42 of 49 people aboard--38 of 44 pasengers and 4 of 5 crew members--while trying to avoid a snowplow on the runway.

Skiing
Ken Read of Calgary won the men's World Cup downhill race at Chamonix, France. It was Mr. Read's second career win, and his first since 1975.

Hockey
NHL
New York Rangers 2 @ Toronto 3
St. Louis 3 @ Montreal 7

30 years ago
1988

Hit parade
#1 single in Spain (PROMUSICAE): Always on My Mind--Pet Shop Boys

#1 single in Finland (Musiikkituottajat – IFPI Finland): Heatseeker--AC/DC

Crime
Testifying before a U.S. Senate subcommittee, accountant Ramon Milan Rodriguez said that he had laundered $11 billion from the Medellin drug cartel through Panamanian banks, with the help of dictator General Manuel Noriega. Mr. Rodriguez said that some of the money went to the Contras in Nicaragua.

Hockey
NHL
Toronto 4 New York Islanders 3

Wayne Gretzky of the Edmonton Oilers scored a goal and 2 assists in a game at Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton to reached the 100-point mark in a season for a record ninth time.

25 years ago
1993

Hit parade
#1 single in Finland (Musiikkituottajat – IFPI Finland): No Limit--2 Unlimited (2nd week at #1)

Died on this date
Robert W. Holley, 71. U.S. biochemist. Dr. Holley shared the 1968 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Har Gobind Khorana and Marshall W. Nirenberg "for their interpretation of the genetic code and its function in protein synthesis." Dr. Holley died two weeks after his 71st birthday.

20 years ago
1998

Society
The United States Senate defeated a bill that would have banned human cloning. The Republican measure aroused concerns over the effect such a bill would have on scientific research.

Law
Golfer Casey Martin won his suit under the Americans With Disabilities Act for the right to use a golf cart in professional tournaments. The professional golf establishment had opposed Martin, arguing that being able to walk around the course was a requirement for professional golfers. Mr. Martin suffered from a disability in one leg that made walking difficult and painful. His golf career went nowhere.

10 years ago
2008

Died on this date
Tom Lantos, 80. Hungarian-born U.S. politician. Dr. Lantos was from a Jewish family, and was interned by the Nazis during World War II, while his mother and other family members were murdered. He emigrated to the United States after the war, and became an economist. Dr. Lantos, a Democrat, represented California's 11th District in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1981-1993 and California's 12th District in the House from 1993 until his death. He was known as an advocate for human rights and the environment. Dr. Lantos died of esophageal cancer, 10 days after his 80th birthday.

Alfredo Reinado, 39. East Timorese military officer. Major Reinado led an unsuccessful rebellion against the East Timorese government in 2005 and was imprisoned, but escaped in 2006 and evaded capture for 18 months. He was killed while participating in an attempt to assassinate Prime Minister Xanana Gusmão and President José Ramos-Horta. President Ramos-Horta and one of his bodyguards were shot and seriously wounded.

Journalism
The Halifax Daily News stopped publication and let go of 92 employees as the owner, Montreal-based Transcontinental Media, moved to replace the paper with a local edition of the free daily Metro.

Environment
Halifax Regional Municipality opened a $400-million project to clean up Halifax Harbour.

Terrorism
The U.S. Defense Department charged Khalid Sheikh Mohammed with murder and war crimes in connection with the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington.