December 21, 2018

Born on this date
Happy Birthday, Juliette Richard!

420 years ago
1598

War
The revolting Mapuche, led by cacique Pelentaru, inflicted a major defeat on Spanish troops in the Battle of Curalaba in southern Chile.

310 years ago
1708

War
French troops based in Placentia, Newfoundland captured and destroy the English settlement at St. John's, bringing the eastern coastline of North America under French control.

180 years ago
1838

Died on this date
Joseph Cardinal and Joseph Duquet. Canadian rebels. The Lower Canada rebels were executed in Montreal.

120 years ago
1898

Science
French chemists Pierre and Marie Curie discovered the radioactive element radium.

100 years ago
1918

Born on this date
Donald Regan. U.S. politician. Mr. Regan was an account executive with Merrill Lynch & Co. from 1946-1980, serving as chairman and Chief Executive Officer from 1971-1980. He served in the administration of U.S. President Ronald Reagan as Secretary of the Treasury from 1981-1985 and White House Chief of Staff from 1985-1987. Mr. Regan was forced to resign because of disagreements with First Lady Nancy Reagan. He died on June 10, 2003 at the age of 84.

Kurt Waldheim. 9th President of Austria, 1986-1992. Secretary-General of the United Nations, 1972-1981. Mr. Waldheim was a diplomat whose posts included that of Austrian Ambassador to Canada (1956-1960). A member of the Austrian People's Party, he served as Austria's Foreign Minister from 1968-1970 and was an unsuccessful candidate for President of Austria in 1971 before accepting the United Nations post. In 1985-1986, while Mr. Waldheim was campaigning for the Austrian presidency, reviews of his service in the German Wehrmacht during World War II indicated that he had lied about his service, including his knowledge of war crimes. He died on June 14, 2007 at the age of 88.

Died on this date
Hobey Baker, 26. U.S. hockey and football player. Mr. Baker was a rover and right wing with the Princeton University Tigers from 1911-14, and quarterbacked the Princeton football team from 1911-1913, setting school scoring records that stood for decades. He helped the Tigers win a national football championship in 1911 and national hockey championships in 1912 and 1914. Mr. Baker worked as a banker after graduation, but was more comfortable as a sportsman, and continued his hockey career with the St. Nicholas Club in New York (1914-1916), leading them to a U.S. amateur championship in 1915. He turned down a contract offer from the Montreal Canadiens, believing that sports should not be played for money, especially for someone of his wealthy upbringing. Mr. Baker served with the U.S. Army during World War I as an aviator, with three confirmed combat victories. In December 1918 he received orders to return to the United States, but insisted on taking a recently-repaired plane for a test flight in a heavy rain. The engine failed, and Mr. Baker was killed when the plane crashed, 25 days before his 27th birthday. Mr. Baker was inducted into both the Hockey Hall of Fame (1945) and United States Hockey Hall of Fame (1973) as a charter member, and was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1975. The Hobey Baker Award is given annually to the best hockey player in the National Collegiate Athletic Association.

90 years ago
1928

Died on this date
Luigi Cadorna, 78. Italian military officer. Marshal Count Cadorna was Commander of the Italian Armies during World War I.

Energy
U.S. President Calvin Coolidge signed the Boulder Canyon Project Act, providing for the Boulder Dam reclamation, flood control, and power project on the Colorado River.

75 years ago
1943

Movies
A Film Daily poll named the best starring performances in 1943 as those of Paul Lukas in Watch on the Rhine and Greer Garson in Random Harvest, originally released in December 1942.

War
The 2nd Canadian Infantry Brigade attacked the Italian town of Ortona, starting a week-long battle, a savage house-to-house fight against heavily-barricaded, "mouseholed" German infantry. 800 U.K. Royal Air Force bombers dropped nearly 2,000 tons of explosives on Frankfurt. The Soviet offensive south of Nevel in White Russia engulfed 100 more inhabited places. A Chinese offensive in the central Chinese "rice bowl" captured the towns of Lihsien, Nanhsien, Ansiang, and Tsingshih in three days of fighting.

Diplomacy
Bolivian Foreign Minister Jose Tamayo sent a note to all foreign diplomats in La Paz stating that the new government intended to abide by all international obligations.

Technology
Joseph Leon Therriault of Saint Hilaire, New Brunswick patented wood molding Weatherstripping for windows and doors.

Labour
B.M. Jewell, chairman of a joint committee representing 1.1 million workers of 15 non-operating railroad unions, announced that they would join the strike called for December 30 by the five operating brotherhoods, as the U.S. Congress adjourned without approving an 8c-per-hour pay increase.

70 years ago
1948

Died on this date
Peng Hsueh-pei. Chinese diplomat. Mr. Peng was China's delegate to the United Nations. He was among the 35 people killed in a plane crash near Hong Kong.

Quentin Roosevelt II, 29. U.S. military officer and aviation executive. Major Roosevelt, a grandson of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, fought in Tunisia and participated in the D-Day invasion with the U.S. Army during World War II. He was Director of the China National Aviation Corporation when he was killed in the same plane crash as Peng Hsueh-pei.

Space
Ohio State University Professor H.L. Johnston reported the development of a hydrogen-based liquid rocket fuel under a U.S. Air Force contract, and predicted the construction of rockets capable of sending men to the Moon at 30,000 miles per hour.

Europeana
Irish President Sean O'Kelly signed the Republic of Ireland bill, making Ireland a republic and severing relations with the British crown.

Defense
U.S., U.K., and French military authorities re-established the Berlin city command, boycotted by the U.S.S.R. since July 1, for their sectors of the city.

Politics and government
The day after former U.S. State Department employee Laurence Duggan, who had recently faced questions from the Federal Bureau of Investigation about whether he had had contacts with Soviet intelligence, died in an apparent suicide, Time editor and former Communist Whittaker Chambers denied knowing Mr. Duggan or naming him as a Soviet spy in the State Department.

Economics and finance
U.S. Economic Cooperation Administrator Paul Hoffman suspended $70 million in long-term reconstruction loans to the Nationalist Chinese government because of the Chinese civil war situation.

Disasters
A China National Aviation Corporation Douglas C-54B XT-104 Skymaster struck a mountain on Basalt Island, near Hong Kong, in poor visibility and poor weather, killing all 35 on board, including Quentin Roosevelt II and Peng Hsueh-pei.

60 years ago
1958

On television tonight
Alfred Hitchcock Presents, on CBS
Tonight's episode: And the Desert Shall Blossom, starring William Demarest, Roscoe Ates, Mike Kellin, and Ben Johnson

Died on this date
H.B. Warner, 82. U.K.-born U.S. actor. Henry Byron Warner was a stage actor in England before moving to the United States in 1905, where he continued his stage career and moved into motion pictures. He played Jesus Christ in The King of Kings (1927), and was known for appearing in movies directed by Frank Capra, including Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936); You Can't Take it With You (1938); and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939). Mr. Warner died of a heart attack.

Lion Feuchtwanger, 74. German-born U.S. author. Mr. Feuchtwanger was best known for his novels Jud Süß (Jew Suss) (1925) and The Oppermanns (1933). He fled Germany shortly after the Nazis came to power in 1933 and ended up in France, but he was imprisoned when the Germans invaded France in 1940. Mr. Feuchtwanger escaped and was able to obtain political asylum in the United States; he had difficulty obtaining citizenship because of his Communist sympathies, but eventually became an American citizen, and died after a year-long battle with stomach cancer.

Married on this date
Swedish-born actress Ingrid Bergman and Swedish film producer Lars Schmidt were married in London.

War
Heavy fighting was reported between the Indonesian Army and rebel forces in the Medan, Padang, and Bukkittinggi areas of Sumatra.

Politics and government
A special roll of electors in France and the French Community elected Charles de Gaulle to a seven-year term as President of France's Fifth Republic, with his term to begin January 8, 1959.

Disasters
An overcrowded bus crashed in to a ravine near Oaxaca, Mexico, killing 70 of 72 passengers.

Football
NFL
Eastern Conference Championship
Cleveland 0 @ New York 10

Frank Gifford rushed 8 yards and then lateralled to quarterback Charlie Conerly, who ran the remaining 10 yards for the game's only touchdown in the 1st quarter as the Giants shut out the Browns before 61,254 fans at Yankee Stadium. Pat Summerall converted and added a 26-yard field goal in the 2nd quarter to complete the scoring. The New York defense limited Cleveland's Jim Brown to 8 yards on 7 carries. The teams had finished in a first-place tie with records of 9-3, with Mr. Summerall's 49-yard field goal with 1:59 remaining in the game giving the Giants a 13-10 win over the Browns on December 14.



50 years ago
1968

Hit parade
#1 single in Australia (Kent Music Report): Hey Jude/Revolution--The Beatles (12th week at #1)

#1 single in Rhodesia (Lyons Maid): Little Arrows--Leapy Lee (6th week at #1)

#1 single in France: Le Temps des Fleurs--Ivan Rebroff (3rd week at #1)

#1 single in Italy (FIMI): Zum zum zum--Sylvie Vartan

#1 single in West Germany (Media Control): Heidschi Bumbeidschi--Heintje (6th week at #1)

#1 single in Ireland (IRMA): Lily the Pink--The Scaffold

#1 single in the U.K. (New Musical Express): Lily the Pink--The Scaffold (2nd week at #1)

#1 single in the U.S.A. (Billboard): I Heard it Through the Grapevine--Marvin Gaye (2nd week at #1)

Netherlands Top 10 (De Nederlandse Top 40)
1 Eloise--Barry Ryan (3rd week at #1)
2 Lea--The Cats
3 Battle Hymn of the Republic--Andy Williams with the St. Charles Borromeo Choir
4 Jerushala'im Shel Zahav--Rika Zarai
5 Just a Little Bit of Peace in My Heart--Golden Earrings
6 Hair--Zen
7 Red Red Wine--Peter Tetteroo
8 My Little Lady--The Tremeloes
9 Jezamine--The Casuals
10 Chewy Chewy--Ohio Express

Singles entering the chart were In the Beginning by Boots (#27); Lily the Pink by the Scaffold (#31); Son-of-a Preacher Man by Dusty Springfield (#36); Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da by the Marmalade (#37); and Somebody's Taken Maria Away by Tom & Mick (#39).

U.S.A. Top 10 (Cash Box)
1 I Heard it Through the Grapevine--Marvin Gaye
2 Abraham, Martin and John--Dion
3 Stormy--Classics IV
4 For Once in My Life--Stevie Wonder
5 Wichita Lineman--Glen Campbell
6 Love Child--Diana Ross and the Supremes
7 I Love How You Love Me--Bobby Vinton
8 Who's Making Love--Johnnie Taylor
9 Both Sides Now--Judy Collins
10 Cloud Nine--The Temptations

Singles entering the chart were Hey Jude by Wilson Pickett (#61); Feelin' So Good (S.k.o.o.b.y-D.o.o.) by the Archies (#82); You Got Soul by Johnny Nash (#84); Eloise by Barry Ryan (#87); Soul Sister, Brown Sugar by Sam & Dave (#88); If I Only Had Time by Nick DeCaro (#89); Fly with Me by Avant Garde (#92); Not on the Outside by the Moments (#93); Looking Back by Joe Simon (#94); Condition Red by the Goodees (#95); and You've Got the Power by the Esquires (#100).

Calgary's Top 10 (Glenn's Music)
1 Little Arrows--Leapy Lee (3rd week at #1)
2 Abraham, Martin and John--Dion
3 Beyond the Clouds--The Poppy Family
4 Elephant Candy--The Fun and Games
5 Of a Dropping Pin--The Guess Who?
6 Revolution/Hey Jude--The Beatles
7 Chewy Chewy--Ohio Express
8 White Houses--Eric Burdon and the Animals
9 Quick Joey Small (Run Joey Run)--Kasenetz-Katz Singing Orchestral Circus
10 Wichita Lineman--Glen Campbell
Pick hit of the week: Bella Linda--The Grass Roots

Space
Apollo 8, the first manned lunar orbiting mission, lifted off from launch pad 39A at Cape Kennedy, Florida at 7:51 A.M. Eastern Standard Time. Aboard were U.S. Air Force Colonel Frank Borman (Commander), 40; U.S. Navy Capt. James A. Lovell, Jr. (Command Module Pilot), 40; and U.S. Air Force Major William A. Anders (Lunar Module Pilot), 35. It was the first manned mission to ride atop a Saturn V rocket, a machine 363 ft. tall, weighing 6,218,558 lbs.



War
In an attempt to secure the release of the 82 surviving crewmen aboard the U.S. spy ship Pueblo, seized by North Korea 11 months earlier, Major General Gilbert H. Woodward, acting on behalf of the United States, signed a "confession" of espionage, along with an apology and a promise to not let it happen again. At the same time, and with full knowledge and approval of the North Koreans, he denounced the confession as false, stressing that he was signing the statement "to free the crew, and only to free the crew."

Appealing for the starving victims of the Nigerian civil war, U.S. President Lyndon Johnson urged the Nigerian government and the breakaway region of Biafra to end the conflict.

Disasters
38 people were rescued, but 41 were missing after an inter-island schooner sank between Union and St. Vincent Islands in the Grenadines, West Indies.

Football
NFL
Eastern Conference Championship
Dallas 20 @ Cleveland 31

Leroy Kelly rushed 20 times for 87 yards and a touchdown, and caught 2 passes for 46 yards and a touchdown to help the Century Division champion Browns defeat the Capitol Division champion Cowboys before 81,497 fans at Municipal Stadium. The game was the last for Cowboys' quarterback "Dandy Don" Meredith, who ended his 9-year NFL career by completing just 3 of 9 passes for 42 yards and 3 interceptions. His understudy, Craig Morton, was 9 for 23 and 163 yards and 1 interception. Bill Nelsen of Cleveland was 13 for 25 for 203 yards, 1 interception and 1 touchdown.

40 years ago
1978

On television tonight
Family, on ABC
Tonight's episode: Gifts

Died on this date
Veikko Suominen, 30. Finnish hockey player. Mr. Suominen was a forward in the SM-liiga who played with Upon Pallo, Kiekko-67, and Ilves from 1967-78. He was still active with Ilves when he committed suicide; the club then retired his jersey #24.

Space
The U.S.S.R. probe Venera 12, launched on September 14, 1978, made a soft landing on Venus, and transmitted information for 110 minutes until its flight platform moved out of range while remaining in a heliocentric orbit. Venera 11, launched September 9, landed on December 25.

Abominations
Police in Des Plaines, Illinois arrested John W. Gacy, Jr. and began unearthing the remains of 33 men and boys he was later convicted of murdering.

30 years ago
1988

Hit parade
#1 single in Sweden (Topplistan): Sarah--Mauro Scocco (6th week at #1)

Died on this date
Willie Kamm, 88. U.S. baseball player. Mr. Kamm was a third baseman with the Chicago White Sox (1923-1931) and Cleveland Indians (1931-1935), batting .281 with 29 home runs and 826 runs batted in in 1,693 games. He was regarded as the best defensive third baseman in the American League for most of his career, leading the AL in fielding percentage eight times. After the White Sox traded Mr. Kamm, they had difficulty finding a good third baseman for most of the next 60 years.

Nikolaas Tinbergen, 81. Dutch-born U.K. ethologist and ornithologist. Dr. Tinbergen shared the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Karl von Frisch and Konrad Lorenz "for their discoveries concerning organization and elicitation of individual and social behaviour patterns." Dr. Tinbergen wrote The Study of Instinct (1951), an influential book about animal behaviour. He died of a stroke.

Dave Ruhl, 68. Canadian wrestler. Mr. Ruhl, a native of Watts, Alberta, wrestled professionally from 1946-1974, and was a mainstay on Stampede Wrestling in the 1960s and '70s. He held the Calgary version of the National Wrestling Alliance Canadian heavyweight title eight times from 1959-1972; the title was abandoned after Mr. Ruhl was forced to relinquish it due to injury. Mr. Ruhl was forced to retire in 1974 because of a head injury, and operated a farm with his brother; he died in Medicine Hat, Alberta.

Terrorism
The explosion of a bomb aboard Pan Am Flight 103--a Boeing 747 flying from Frankfurt to New York via London--above Lockerbie, Scotland killed 270 people--all 259 on board, and another 11 on the ground.

Aviation
The Antonov An-225 Mriya, the largest aircraft in the world, made its first flight, a 74-minute flight from Kiev.

Politics and government
The governing groups of Israel's Likud and Labour Parties, neither of which had been able to win a majority in the Knesset in the November 1 general election, approved the December 19 agreement on a coalition that would see Likud leader Yitzhak Shamir serve as Prime Minister for four years, with Labour Party leader Shimon Peres shifting from Foreign Minister to Finance Minister.

Scandal
The U.S. securities company Drexel Burnham Lambert agreed to plead guilty to six violations of federal law and to penalties totalling $650 million. The settlement, the largest by far in a securities fraud case, included $300 million in fines and the creation of a $350-million account to satisfy claims by parties who could prove that they had been defrauded by DBL. The charges related mostly to dealings between DBL and financier Ivan Boesky, who had been convicted previously, and included insider trading, stock manipulation, and falsifying records. The agreement between the government and DBL also required that the firm settle civil charges previously brought against it. "Junk bond king' Michael Milken, who had helped bring DBL to prominence on Wall Street, was not a party to the settlement, and faced the possibility of a criminal indictment.

Bess Myerson, who had been Miss America for 1945, was acquitted by a New York City jury of bribery, fraud, and conspiracy charges. The prosecution had claimed that she had improperly influenced the judge presiding over the divorce case of her boyfriend, Carl Capasso. Mr. Capasso and the now-retired judge, Hortense Gabel, were also acquitted.

25 years ago
1993

Died on this date
Guy des Cars, 82. French journalist and author. Mr. des Cars began his career as a journalist, but was best known for more than 60 pulp novels in a career spanning more than 50 years from the early 1940s to the early '90s.

20 years ago
1998

Died on this date
Ernst-Günther Schenck, 94. German physician. Dr. Schenk was an obersturmbannführer with the SS during World War II, where he worked mainly in the field of nutrition. Despite being inexperienced as a surgeon, he performed operations on wounded soldiers during the final days of combat in April 1945. Dr. Schenk met German Fuehrer Adolf Hitler in his Fuehrer bunker during the last two days of Mr. Hitler's life, and his recollections proved historically valuable. Dr. Schenk was captured by the Soviet Red Army while breaking out of the bunker on May 1, 1945, and spent the next eight years in captivity in the U.S.S.R. He was freed in 1953 and returned to West Germany; he wasn't allowed to resume his medical practice, but worked with the chemical firm Chemie Grünenthal.