June 9, 2018

Born on this date
Happy Birthday, Sandie Topechka!

1,950 years ago
68

Died on this date
Nero, 30. Emperor of the Roman Empire, 54-68. Nero, the last Emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasy, succeeded his uncle Claudius on the throne. Much of Nero's life and reputation seems to be in dispute; he was known for lavish expenditures on public works, sports, and the arts. He also had a reputation for cruelty, which included ordering the murder of his mother Agrippina the Younger, who dominated the first 25 years of his life. Fearing a revolt by Galba, Nero couldn't bring himself to commit suicide, but forced his private secretary, Epaphroditos, to fatally stab him. Galba took power as Emperor, beginning the civil war known as the Year of the Four Emperors.

225 years ago
1793

Society
The Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada passed a law prohibiting the importation of slaves into Upper Canada.

200 years ago
1818

Economics and finance
The Bank of Québec was founded, with £75,000 in capital.

175 years ago
1843

Born on this date
Bertha von Suttner. Austrian authoress. Baroness von Suttner was a pacifist who was awarded the 1905 Nobel Peace Prize for writing Lay Down Your Arms and contributing to the creation of the Prize. She died on June 21, 1914, 12 days after her 71st birthday.

125 years ago
1893

Born on this date
Irish Meusel. U.S. baseball player. Emil Frederick Meusel, the older brother of New York Yankees' outfielder Bob Meusel, played left field with the Washington Nationals (1914); Philadelphia Phillies (1918-1921); New York Giants (1921-1926); and Brooklyn Robins (1927), batting .310 with 106 home runs and 819 runs batted in in 1,294 games. In 9 seasons in the minor leagues from 1913-1917 and 1927-1931 Mr. Meusel batted .311 with 54 homers in 921 games. He was a member of the Giants' World Series championship teams in 1921 and 1922, and National League champions in 1923 and 1924, batting .345 (10 for 29) in the 1921 World Series. Mr. Meusel led the NL with 125 runs batted in in 1923. He died on March 1, 1963 at the age of 69.

120 years ago
1898

Golf
Harry Vardon shot 76 in the final round for a total of 307 to win the British Open at Prestwick Golf Club in Prestwick, South Ayrshire, Scotland, 1 stroke ahead of Willie Park, Jr. First prize money was £30. Mr. Vardon had previously won the Open Championship in 1896.

100 years ago
1918

Born on this date
John Hospers. U.S. philosopher and politician. Professor Hospers was interested in Ayn Rand's philosophy of objectivism and the two became friends, but later had a falling out. In 1972 he became the Libertarian Party's candidate for President of the United States; although he was on the ballot only in Washington and Colorado, he managed to get one electoral vote from a faithless Republican elector in Virginia. Professor Hospers died on June 12, 2011, three days after his 93rd birthday.

90 years ago
1928

Aviation
Charles Kingsford Smith and his crew landed the Fokker Trimotor monoplane Southern Cross at Brisbane, Australia from Fiji, completing the first ever trans-Pacific flight from the United States mainland to Australia.

75 years ago
1943

Died on this date
Lewis Brown McFarlane, 91. Canadian research assistant. Mr. McFarlane helped Alexander Graham Bell make the world's first long distance telephone call in 1876. He died in Montreal.

Music
The New York Music Critics Circle named Symphony No. 1, Opus 20 by Paul Creston as the best symphonic work by an American composer to be premiered in the 1942-43 season.

War
Soviet troops established a bridgehead on the west bank of the Mius River, west of Rostov, amd repulsed a German effort to dislodge them. Waves of Allied planes bombed Pantelleria, reportedly downing 12 Axis planes.

Diplomacy
Brazil, Paraguay, Bolivia, and Chile recognized the Argentine government of General Pedro Pablo Ramirez.

Uruguay recognized the French Committee of National Liberation in Algiers as the official French government.

Journalism
A New York Supreme Court jury failed to reach a verdict in Dr. Jerome Davis's $250,000 libel suit against the Curtis Publishing Company and Benjamin Stolberg, author of an article in The Saturday Evening Post that characterized Dr. Davis as a "Communist and Stalinist."

Labour
United Mine Workers of America President John L. Lewis and Charles O'Neill, head of the Central Pennsylvania Coal Operators Association, announced an oral agreement covering 65,000 miners and calling for a $1.30-per-day travel allowance.

70 years ago
1948

Died on this date
Joshua Liebman, 41. U.S. clergyman and author. Rabbi Liebman was know for his book Peace of Mind (1946), attempting to reconcile religion and psychiatry. The book was still on best-seller lists when Rabbi Liebman died of a heart attack.

War
Israel and the Arab League announced unconditional acceptance of the truce terms of United Nations mediator Folke Bernadotte.

Education
The International Council on Archives was founded under the auspices of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

Politics and government
The U.K. House of Lords rejected a government bill halving the time period during which the Lords could veto legislation.

Speaking in Spokane, Washington, U.S. President Harry Truman set off a barrage of criticism of Republicans by referring to the Republican-dominated 80th Congress as "the worst...we have had."

60 years ago
1958

Hit parade
#1 singles in the U.S.A. (Billboard): The Purple People Eater--Sheb Wooley (Best Seller--1st week at #1; Top 100--1st week at #1); All I Have to Do is Dream--The Everly Brothers (Disc Jockey--4th week at #1)

U.S.A. Top 10 (Music Vendor)
1 All I Have to Do is Dream--The Everly Brothers
2 The Purple People Eater--Sheb Wooley
3 Return to Me--Dean Martin
4 Secretly--Jimmie Rodgers
5 Twilight Time--The Platters
6 Big Man--The Four Preps
7 Witch Doctor--David Seville
8 Sugar Moon--Pat Boone
9 Chanson d'Amour (Song of Love)--Art and Dotty Todd
--The Fontane Sistes
10 I'm Sorry I Made You Cry--Connie Francis

Died on this date
Robert Donat, 53. U.K. actor. Mr. Donat had a successful stage career before going into movies, where he won an Academy Award for his starring performance in Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939); his other notable films included The 39 Steps (1935) and The Citadel (1938). He suffered from asthma for many years, but it was a brain tumour that apparently killed him, shortly after completing his last film, The Inn of the Sixth Happiness (1958).

World events
The East German government said that it would not release U.S. soldiers seized in the previous day's forced landing of a helicopter in East German territory until the U.S. opened direct negotiations for their release.

Transportation
Queen Elizabeth II opened an extended airport at Gatwick, south of London, modernized at a cost of £7 million.

50 years ago
1968

On television tonight
Canada's first televised federal election debate took place. The participants were Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau (Liberal); Opposition leader Robert Stanfield (Progressive Conservative); New Democratic Party leader Tommy Douglas; and Ralliement des créditistes leader Réal Caouette. The debate occupied 2 hours, the last 40 minutes in French only. Mr. Caouette participated only in the French part of the debate.





Golf
Billy Casper won the Indianapolis Open with a score of 280. First prize money was $20,000. It was Mr. Casper's fourth win of the year.

40 years ago
1978

Hit parade
#1 single in West Germany (Media Control): Rivers of Babylon--Boney M. (8th week at #1)

#1 single in France (IFOP): It's a Heartache--Bonnie Tyler (2nd week at #1)

War
Israeli commandos attacked an Al Fatah Palestinian guerrilla base north of the United Nations zone in Lebanon.

Religion
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, popularly known as the Mormon Church, opened its priesthood--normally entered by all white Mormon males at age 12--to "all worthy men," ending a 148-year-old policy of excluding Negro men. Spencer W. Kimball, the church's "Prophet, Seer and Revelator," announced in Salt Lake City that the decision had been based on a revelation that had come to church leaders. He said, "The long-promised day has come when every faithful, worthy man in the Church may receive the holy priesthood." The change was expected to facilitate the church's active missionary program. Women were still not considered worthy for the priesthood.

Crime
Joan Little, a female Negro prisoner who had attracted international attention in 1975 when she was acquitted of murdering a white prison guard who was attempting to rape her, was extradited from New York to North Carolina to complete her prison sentence for breaking and entering. She had escaped from prison in October 1977, and pled guilty on June 12, 1978, receiving an additional sentence of 6 months-2 years.

Business
In the largest recall in automotive history to this date, Ford Motor Company recalled 1.5 million Ford Pintos and Mercury Bobcats in order to "end public concern that has resulted from criticism of the fuel systems in these vehicles."

30 years ago
1988

Hit parade
#1 single in Spain (PROMUSICAE): Gimme Hope Jo'anna--Eddy Grant (2nd week at #1)

#1 single in Finland (Musiikkituottajat – IFPI Finland): Got to Be Certain--Kylie Minogue (3rd week at #1)

Energy
The Supreme Court of Canada denied Newfoundland's 12-year quest for a better contract with Quebec for power from the Churchill Falls Hydro project.

Basketball
NBA
Finals
Detroit 96 @ Los Angeles Lakers 108 (Best-of-seven series tied 1-1)



25 years ago
1993

Hit parade
#1 single in Sweden (Topplistan): Two Princes--Spin Doctors (2nd week at #1)

Died on this date
Alexis Smith, 72. Canadian-born U.S. actress. Miss Smith, a native of Penticton, British Columbia, appeared in such movies as Gentleman Jim (1942); The Constant Nymph (1943); The Adventures of Mark Twain (1944); The Horn Blows at Midnight (1945); Conflict (1945); Rhapsody in Blue (1945); Night and Day (1946); Here Comes the Groom (1951); The Young Philadelphians (1959); and The Age of Innocence (1993). She won a Tony Award for her performance in Follies (1971). Miss Smith was married to actor Craig Stevens from 1944 until her death, the day after her 72nd birthday.

Married on this date
Japan's Crown Prince Naruhito married commoner Masako Owada in a Shinto ceremony.

At the movies
Jurassic Park, directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Sam Neill, Laura Dern, and Jeff Goldblum, received its premiere screening at the Uptown Theatre in Washington, D.C.

Abominations
Hooligans masquerading as hockey fans "celebrated" the Montreal Canadiens' winning the Stanley Cup by rioting in downtown Montreal, resulting in 168 people reported injured and $10 million in property damage.

Hockey
Stanley Cup
Finals
Los Angeles 1 @ Montreal 4 (Montreal won best-of-seven series 4-1)

Paul DiPietro scored 2 goals and Kirk Muller scored the winning goal at 3:51 of the 2nd period to break a 1-1 tie as the Canadiens defeated the Kings to win the Stanley Cup for the 24th time. It was the last championship to be decided at the Montreal Forum and the most recent to be won by a Canadian-based team. Montreal goaltender Patrick Roy won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the playoffs' most valuable player; he had previously won the trophy in 1986. Los Angeles centre Wayne Gretzky was held without a shot on goal in what turned out to be his last Stanley Cup finals game. Stephane Lebeau scored the other Montreal goal, while Marty McSorley scored for the Kings.



Basketball
NBA
Finals
Chicago 100 @ Phoenix 92 (Chicago led best-of-seven series 1-0)



20 years ago
1998

Hockey
NHL
Stanley Cup
Finals
Washington 1 @ Detroit 2 (Detroit led best-of-seven series 1-0)



10 years ago
2008

Television
CTV outbid CBC, paying almost $3 million for rights in perpetuity to Dolores Claman's theme music for Hockey Night in Canada, written in 1968.

Terrorism
Two bombs exploded at a train station near Algiers, killing at least 13 people.

Baseball
Ken Griffey, Jr. of the Cincinnati Reds became the sixth player in major league history to hit 600 career home runs, hitting a 2-run blast in the top of the 1st inning to open the scoring as the Reds beat the Florida Marlins 9-4 before 16,003 fans at Dolphin Stadium in Miami. Catcher Paul Bako led the Cincinnati attack with 2 home runs and 5 runs batted in.



Willie Bloomquist scored on a squeeze bunt by Miguel Cairo in the top of the 10th inning to break a 2-2 tie as the Seattle Mariners edged the Toronto Blue Jays 3-2 before 20,073 fans at Rogers Centre in Toronto.

Jose Guillen led off the top of the 9th inning with a home run to break a 2-2 tie as the Kansas City Royals edged the New York Yankees 3-2 before 53,633 fans at Yankee Stadium.

Ryan Garko hit a 3-run home run in the 1st inning to open the scoring and drove in another run when he was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded as part of a 5-run 2nd inning to help the Cleveland Indians beat the Detroit Tigers 8-2 before 38,440 fans at Comerica Park in Detroit. Mike Hollimon made his major league debut with Detroit, playing the 9th inning at shortstop and batting 0 for 1.

Nick Swisher drove in 3 runs with a pair of home runs and Paul Konerko added a 2-run homer to help the Chicago White Sox defeat the Minnesota Twins 7-5 before 21,126 fans at U.S. Cellular Field in Chicago.

Dioner Navarro batted 4 for 5 with a home run, 2 doubles, 3 runs, and 4 runs batted in to help the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Anaheim Angels 13-4 before 42,019 fans at Angel Stadium of Anaheim. Evan Longoria added to the Tampa Bay attack by batting 3 for 4 with 2 homers, a double, a base on balls, 4 runs, and 3 RBIs.