July 21, 2018

Born on this date
Happy Birthday, Garland Grayston!

450 years ago
1568

War
The forces of Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, Duke of Alba defeated those of Louis of Nassau in the Battle of Jemmingen in what is now part of Germany.

325 years ago
1693

Born on this date
Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle. Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, 1754-1756, 1757-1762. The Duke of Newcastle, a Whig, was known for his ability to control patronage and win elections. He held several other posts, including Secretary of State, but was regarded as a poor diplomat and administrator, and was removed from office in 1762 by King George III. The Duke of Newcastle died on November 17, 1768 at the age of 75.

300 years ago
1718

War
The Treaty of Passarowitz (or Treaty of Požarevac) was signed in Serbia between the Ottoman Empire on one side and the Habsburg Monarchy of Austria and the Republic of Venice on the other.

225 years ago
1793

Died on this date
Antoine Bruni d'Entrecasteaux, 55. French military officer, explorer, and politician. Rear Admiral Entrecasteaux served as Governor of Isle de France (now Mauritius), but was best known for exploring the Australian coast in 1792 while searching for the expedition of Jean-François de La Pérouse, who had not been heard of since leaving Botany Bay in March 1788. Rear Admiral Entrecasteaux died of scurvy off the Hermit Islands.

Exploration
Alexander Mackenzie arrived at the head of Dean Channel on the Pacific coast after descending the Bella Coola River in what is now British Columbia.

220 years ago
1798

War
Napoleon Bonaparte's forces defeated an Ottoman-Mamluk army near Cairo in the Battle of the Pyramids.

160 years ago
1858

Born on this date
Maria Christina of Austria. Queen consort of Spain, 1879-1885. Maria Christina, a daughter of Archduke Ferdinand of Austria, was the second wife of King Alfonso XII of Spain, serving as queen consort until his death in 1885. She was pregnant with his first child at the time of King Alfonso's death, and the throne was vacant until it was known whether the unborn baby was male or female. Queen Maria Christina gave birth to a son, who acceded to the throne as King Alfonso XIII, with his mother acting as regent from 1885-1902, until he attained his majority. Queen Maria Christina died of heart disease on February 6, 1929 at the age of 70.

150 years ago
1868

Died on this date
William Bland, 78. U.K.-born Australian physician and politician. Dr. Bland was a surgeon on the Royal navy sloop HMS Hesper who was exiled to Van Diemen's Land after killing purser Robert Case in a duel in 1813. Dr. Bland was a pioneer in the Australian struggle for responsible government. He represented Sydney on the New South Wales Territorial Council (1843-1848, 1849-1850), and sat on the NSW Legislative Council (1858-1861). Dr. Bland died of pneumonia.

110 years ago
1908

Born on this date
Phil Handler. U.S. football player and coach. Mr. Handler was a guard with the Chicago Cardinals (1930-1936), and was an assistant and/or head coach with the Cardinals (1937-1951), compiling a head coaching record of 4-34, while helping the team win the NFL championship in 1947. He was an assistant coach with the Chicago Bears (1952-1967), helping them win the NFL championship in 1963. Mr. Handler suffered a heart attack shortly after the end of the 1967 season and was forced to reduce his activities with the Bears; he died after a second heart attack on December 8, 1968 at the age of 60.

Jug McSpaden. U.S. golfer. Harold Lee McSpaden won 28 tournaments in a professional career that began in 1927 and continued through the 1940s, but was best known for his large number of second-place finishes. He finished second to Byron Nelson in so many tournaments that the two were nicknamed the "Gold Dust Twins." Mr. McSpaden was 87 when and his wife Betty, were found dead in their home in Kansas City, Kansas on April 22, 1996. Their car was running in the garage that was attached to the house, and the deaths were ruled to be the result of accidental carbon monoxide poisoning.

90 years ago
1928

World events
In Lisbon, the Portuguese government bombarded and captured St. George Castle, where the 7th Regiment was in revolt.

Disasters
Four surveyors discovered the bodies of English trapper Jack Hornby, his young cousin Edgar Christian, and their friend Adlard in a cabin on the Thelon River in the Northwest Territories. Inside the stove was Mr. Christian's diary detailing how they slowly starved to death over the winter and spring. Mr. Hornby died April 16, 1928, after weeks of suffering; Mr. Adlard died May 4, 1928; and Mr. Christian continued his diary until his final entry June 1, 1928, noting that he was too weak to walk and could not fetch wood for the stove. He then crawled into his bunk and died.

80 years ago
1938

Died on this date
Owen Wister, 78. U.S. author. Mr. Wister was best known for his novel The Virginian (1902), which is largely regarded as the first western novel.

Linus "Skeeter" Ebnet, 23. U.S. baseball player. Mr. Ebnet (whose name has also been recorded as Ebenet), a resident of Albany, Minnesota, played second base with the East Grand Forks Colts (1933); Grand Forks Chiefs (1934-1935); Crookston Pirates (1936); and Winnipeg Maroons (1937-1938) in the Class D Northern League, batting .256 with 6 home runs in 540 games. He was batting .280 with no homers in 39 games in 1938, and was the third batter in the bottom of the 1st inning of a home game against Grand Forks on July 16. Grand Forks pitcher Vince "Dutch" Clawson retired the first two batters, and his first two pitches to Mr. Ebnet were balls. Mr. Clawson tried to throw the third pitch over the plate, but it broke inside, and Mr. Ebnet accidentally leaned into it and suffered a fractured skull. An operation two days later to relieve pressure on his brain was unsuccessful.

75 years ago
1943

Died on this date
William Upshur, 61. U.S. military officer. Major General Upshur served with the U.S. Marine Corps on various foreign shores, and was awarded the Medal of Honor for bravery in a campaign against Haitian rebels in 1915. He and Charley Paddock, a member of his personal staff, were on an inspection tour of his command, which included Alaska and the Aleutian Islands, when they were killed in a plane crash near Sitka, Alaska.

Charley Paddock, 42. U.S. runner. Mr. Paddock won gold medals in the men's 100-metre and 4 X 100-metre relay and a silver medal in the men's 200-metre events at the 1920 Summer Olympic Games in Antwerp. He won the silver medal again in the men's 200-metre run at the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris, and gold medals in the 100- and 200-metre runs at the World University Games in 1923. Mr. Paddock was three weeks short of his 43rd birthday when he was killed in the plane crash with Major General Upshur.

War
HMCS The Pas was badly damaged in a collision with SS Medina in the western Atlantic Ocean. Allied headquarters in Cairo revealed that British forces now had a military liaison with the Yugoslav partisans and would aid this resistance group as well as General Draja Mikhailovich's Chetniks. U.S. troops captured Sciacca, Menfi, and Castelvetrano, and advanced to the outskirts of Marsala on the western tip of Sicily. More than 150 U.S. planes bombed Bairoko Harbour, New Georgia Island, in the heaviest Allied raid yet in the southwest Pacific.

Economics and finance
Mexican President Manuel Avila Camacho authorized the Ministry of National Economy to seize corn hoarded by speculators. U.S. Office of Price Administration inspectors seized poultry trucks on Army requisition orders in the Delaware-Maryland-Virginia area, where black markets prevented Army purchases at the ceiling price of 29.5c per pound.

Labour
United Mine Workers of America President John L. Lewis signed a two-year contract with the Illinois Coal Operators Association, affecting 30,500 miners.

70 years ago
1948

Died on this date
William D'Arcy, 74. U.S. advertising executive. Mr. D'Arcy founded D'Arcy Advertising Company and was a leading innovator in American advertising.

Diplomacy
Romania and Czechoslovakia signed a two-year friendship and mutual aid treaty in Bucharest.

Politics and government
French President Vincent Auriol named Radical Socialist leader Andre Marie as Prime Minister.

Yugoslavian President Marshal Josip Broz Tito opened a Yugoslavian Communist Party congress in Belgrade with a speech attacking Cominform charges against him, but reaffirming his "agreement with the policy of Soviet Russia."

U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation Director J. Edgar Hoover announced that over two million federal employees had been screened in the loyalty investigation program.

Economics and finance
U.S.S.R. authorities in Germany offered to supply the western sectors of Berlin with food if residents registered their ration cards in the eastern sector and purchase their food with Soviet-zone currency.

Business
A U.S. federal district court in Trenton, New Jersey ordered U.S. Pipe and Foundry Company to release 50 patents and stop monopolizing the cast iron pressure pipe trade.

Labour
Colombian President Mariano Ospina Perez issued an executive decree granting workers a share in industrial and agricultural profits exceeding 12%.

60 years ago
1958

Hit parade
#1 singles in the U.S.A. (Billboard): Hard Headed Woman/Don't Ask Me Why--Elvis Presley (Best Seller--1st week at #1); Hard Headed Woman--Elvis Presley (Disc Jockey--1st week at #1); Yakety Yak--The Coasters (Top 100--1st week at #1)

Transportation
The Iranian and Soviet railway systems were linked with the opening of a junction at Julfa on the Soviet-Iranian frontier.

Disasters
47 passengers drowned as a boat capsized in a gale in Kerala State, India.

Football
CFL
WIFU
Pre-season
Edmonton Eskimos intrasquad game
Gold 27 Green 0

Johnny Bright rushed 17 times for 126 yards and a touchdown, while Joe-Bob Smith, Mike Lashuk, and Bob LaRue also scored TDs for Gold as they routed Green before 5,000 fans at Clarke Stadium, most of whom left before the end because of intermittent bouts of heavy rain. Tommy Pearson was successful on 3 of 4 convert attempts.

The Eskimos signed free agent halfback Fob James, who had played for the Montreal Alouettes in 1956 before entering the United States Army and missing the entire 1957 season.

50 years ago
1968

Golf
Julius Boros, 48, became the oldest golfer to win a major tournament when won the PGA Championship at Pecan Valley Golf Club in San Antonio with a 1-over-par total score of 281, 1 stroke ahead of Bob Charles and Arnold Palmer. First prize money was $25,000.

Football
CFL
Pre-season
Montreal (1-3) 6 @ Edmonton (3-1) 17

Larry Plancke caught 2 touchdown passes for the Eskimos and Peter Kempf added 2 converts and a field goal as they defeated the Alouettes at Clarke Stadium.

40 years ago
1978

Hit parade
#1 single in Sweden (Topplistan): Rivers of Babylon--Boney M. (2nd week at #1)

#1 single in West Germany (Media Control): Rivers of Babylon--Boney M. (14th week at #1)

#1 single in France (IFOP): En chantant--Michel Sardou

At the movies
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, starring Peter Frampton, the Bee Gees, and many others, opened in theatres.

Music
Frankie Valli, with the Edmonton band Tacoy Ryde as the opening act, performed at the Edmonton Coliseum, before only about 800 fans, leaving 15,000 empty seats.

World events
General Juan Pereda Asbun seized power in Bolivia, two days after a court had annulled his July 9 victory in the country's presidential election on charges of electoral fraud. Current President Hugo Banzer Suarez had planned to turn over power on August 6 to an elected President, ending 12 years of military rule.

Britannica
The United Kingdom announced that the Caribbean island of Dominica would be granted independence.

Labour
The U.S. Postal Service and postal unions agreed on a three-year contract averting the possibility of a strike. The new contract provided a 19.5% wage increase and preserved the no-layoff clause of the old contract.

A week-long strike of 19,000 city workers in Philadelphia ended.

Baseball
The Montreal Expos sold infielder Wayne Garrett to the St. Louis Cardinals. Mr. Garrett, in his 10th major league season and third with the Expos, was batting .174 with 1 home run and 2 runs batted in in 49 games with Montreal in 1978.

Reggie Smith tripled in a run and scored in the 1st inning and hit a 3-run home run in the 7th inning that provided the winning margin as the Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the St. Louis Cardinals 7-5 before 51,911 fans, including this blogger and his parents, at Dodger Stadium. The Cardinals scored 2 runs in the 9th and had runners on first and second bases with 2 out, but Ted Simmons grounded into a force play to end the game. Ken Oberkfell, in his first game in a St. Louis uniform, batted 2 for 3 with a double and 2 runs.

Dick Ruthven and Larry Christenson were the respective winning pitchers as the Philadelphia Phillies swept a doubleheader from the Houston Astros 6-1 and 8-2 before 35,389 fans at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. Oscar Zamora pitched a scoreless inning of relief for the Astros in the first game and allowed 2 hits and 1 run--earned--in 1/3 inning in the second game in the last 2 games of his 158-game, 4-year major league career.

The Cincinnati Reds scored 6 runs in the 6th inning as they beat the Montreal Expos 10-3 before 25,825 fans at Olympic Stadium in Montreal. Mike LaCoss, in his second major league game, allowed 7 hits and 3 earned runs in 8+ innings to get his first major league win, and singled in a run and scored in the 6th.



The New York Mets scored 5 runs in the 7th inning and 3 in the 8th as they beat the Atlanta Braves 12-3 before 10,636 fans at Shea Stadium in New York.

Jim Bibby pitched a 6-hitter to win the pitchers' duel over Bob Knepper as the Pittsburgh Pirates shut out the San Francisco Giants 3-0 before 23,882 fans at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.

Mike Paxton pitched a 2-hitter and Rick Manning and Johnny Grubb each drove in 3 runs as the Cleveland Indians routed the Seattle Mariners 11-0 before 13,908 fans at Cleveland Stadium. Cleveland outfielder Jim Norris batted 4 for 5 with a triple and a run.

Lyman Bostock singled home Carney Lansford and scored on a single by Brian Downing in the top of the 11th inning to break a 2-2 tie as the California Angels beat the Detroit Tigers 4-2 in the first game of a doubleheader before 33,699 fans at Tiger Stadium. Kip Young pitched the last 2 innings for Detroit and allowed 3 hits and 2 earned runs, with 1 base on balls and 1 strikeout, taking the loss in his first major league game. Jack Billingham pitched a 7-hitter and Rusty Staub hit a single, double, and home run as the Tigers won the second game 5-0.



Paul Splittorff pitched a 6-hitter and Clint Hurdle batted 3 for 3 with a home run, sacrifice fly, 2 runs, and 6 runs batted in as the Kansas City Royals routed the Boston Red Sox 9-0 before 39,841 fans at Royals Stadium.

30 years ago
1988

Hit parade
#1 single in Spain (PROMUSICAE): Gimme Hope Jo'anna--Eddy Grant (7th week at #1)

#1 single in Finland (Musiikkituottajat – IFPI Finland): Yé ké yé ké--Mory Kanté

Law
In Ottawa, the New Emergencies Act received royal assent, and the War Measures Act of 1914 was set aside. The Canadian Multiculturalism Act, to "promote the full and equitable participation of individuals and communities of all origins in the continuing evolution and shaping of all aspects of Canadian society,” was passed, and two other bills designed to weed out bogus refugee claimants also received royal assent.

Politics and government
At the Democratic National Convention in Atlanta, Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis formally accepted his party's nomination for President of the United States of America in the November election, saying his campaign was not about ideology but about competence. His themes included the importance of the family and traditional values, and of honesty in government.

Football
CFL
Hamilton (1-1) 9 @ Winnipeg (1-1) 21

25 years ago
1993

Hit parade
#1 single in Sweden (Topplistan): (I Can't Help) Falling in Love with You--UB40 (4th week at #1)

War
Serbian forces closed in on Sarajevo as nationalist forces in Bosnia battled to close off key roads that would cut off the retreat of Muslim defenders.

Football
CFL
Saskatchewan (1-2) 3 @ Edmonton (2-1) 35

Damon Allen completed 3 touchdown passes to Eddie Brown and another to Henry "Gizmo" Williams to lead the Eskimos over the Roughriders before 27,894 fans at Commonwealth Stadium. Mr. Williams scored another TD on an 89-yard punt return.



20 years ago
1998

Died on this date
Robert Young, 91. U.S. actor. Mr. Young had a lengthy career in film and television, but was best known as star of the radio (1949-1954) and television (1954-1960) series Father Knows Best and the television series Marcus Welby, M.D. (1969-1976). He won Emmy Awards in 1957, 1958, and 1960.

Alan Shepard, 74. U.S. astronaut. Rear Admiral Shepard was a United States Navy officer before becoming one of the original seven men selected for the U.S. manned space program in 1959. He became the first American in space with the suborbital Mercury-Redstone 3 mission in his spacecraft, nicknamed "Friendship 7," on May 5, 1961. Mr. Shepard came down with Ménière's disease--an inner ear condition--in 1963, and was grounded until an operation in 1969 proved successful, serving during this period as Chief of the Astronaut Office. Mr. Shepard commanded the Apollo 14 mission in 1971, and became the fifth man to walk on the Moon, and the only man to hit a golf shot there. Rear Admiral Shepard retired from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the United States Navy on July 31, 1974. He died after a two-year battle with leukemia, and his wife Louise died of a heart attack just five weeks later.

10 years ago
2008

War
Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, one of the world's top war crimes fugitives, was arrested in a Belgrade suburb by Serbian security forces.

Politics and government
Ram Baran Yadav was declared the first President of Nepal; he took office two days later.