February 19, 2019

Born on this date
Happy Birthday, Lee Morrow!

370 years ago
1649

War
Portuguese and Brazilian colonial forces defeated Dutch forces in the Second Battle of Guararapes, effectively ending Dutch colonization efforts in Brazil.

230 years ago
1789

Died on this date
Nicholas Van Dyke, 50. U.S. politician. Mr. Van Dyke served as Continental Congressman from Delaware from 1777-1782 and President (Governor) of Delaware from 1783-1786.

200 years ago
1819

Exploration
British explorer William Smith discovered the South Shetland Islands and claimed them in the name of King George III.

160 years ago
1859

Born on this date
Svante Arrhenius. Swedish physicist and chemist. Dr. Arrhenius, one of the founders of physical chemistry, won the 1903 Nobel Prize in Chemistry "[for] his electrolytic theory of dissociation." He died on October 2, 1927 at the age of 68.

150 years ago
1869

Born on this date
Frederic Walcott. U.S. politician. Mr. Walcott, a Republican, was a member of the Connecticut State Senate from 1925-1929 and represented Connecticut in the United States Senate from 1929-1935, where he was the principal author of the bill creating the Reconstruction Finance Corporation. He died on April 27, 1949 at the age of 80.

130 years ago
1889

War
Saskatchewan Métis leader Gabriel Dumont was pardoned by the Crown for role in the 1885 North West rebellion. Mr. Dumont was Louis Riel's adjutant-general, and had fled to the United States when he heard that Mr. Riel had surrendered. In 1886, on hearing of Mr. Riel's execution, Mr. Dumont had joined Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show as a crack marksman, returning to Canada in 1888 after the amnesty for rebels.

75 years ago
1944

Hit parade
#1 single in the U.S.A. (Billboard): My Heart Tells Me (Should I Believe My Heart?)--Glen Gray and the Casa Loma Orchestra with Eugenie Baird (Best Seller--4th week at #1); Shoo-Shoo Baby--The Andrews Sisters with Vic Schoen and his Orchestra (Jukebox--6th week at #1)

War
The three-pronged Soviet drive on Pskov resulted in the occupation of 130 communities. Reinforcements reaching Allied forces in Italy enabled new progress to be made against the Germans on the Cassino line. U.S. Marines captured the Japanese air base at the northern end of Engebi Island in the Marshall Islands.

Track and field
Gil Dodds won the Baxter mile at the New York Athletic Club games in 4:08.

70 years ago
1949

Hit parade
#1 single in Australia (Kent Music Report): Buttons and Bows--Dinah Shore and the Happy Valley Boys; Gene Autry (7th week at #1)

#1 single in the U.S.A. (Billboard) (Best Seller): A Little Bird Told Me--Evelyn Knight and the Stardusters (5th week at #1)

U.S. top 10 (Cash Box)
1 A Little Bird Told Me--Evelyn Knight and the Stardusters (3rd week at #1)
--Paula Watson
--Blue Lu Barker
2 Far Away Places--Bing Crosby
--Margaret Whiting and the Crew Chiefs
--Perry Como
3 Lavender Blue (Dilly Dilly)--Sammy Kaye and his "Swing and Sway" Orchestra
--Dinah Shore
4 Powder Your Face with Sunshine (Smile! Smile! Smile!)--Evelyn Knight and the Stardusters
--Sammy Kaye and his "Swing and Sway" Orchestra
5 On a Slow Boat to China--Kay Kyser Orchestra
--Freddy Martin and his Orchestra
6 I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm--Les Brown and his Orchestra
--The Mills Brothers
7 The Pussy Cat Song (Nyow! Nyot Nyow!)--Patty Andrews and Bob Crosby
--Perry Como with the Fontane Sisters
8 Buttons and Bows--Dinah Shore and the Happy Valley Boys
--The Dinning Sisters
9 My Darling, My Darling--Jo Stafford and Gordon MacRae with the Starlighters
--Doris Day and Buddy Clark
10 You were Only Fooling (While I was Falling in Love)--Blue Barron and his Orchestra
--The Ink Spots
--Kay Starr

No new singles entered the chart.

On the radio
Tales of Fatima, starring Basil Rathbone, on CBS
Tonight's episode: The Jilted Juvenile

World events
The Bulgarian government published a confession attributed to arrested Protestant church leader Vassil Ziapkov, accusing himself and other Protestant leaders of cooperating with Western spies.

Defense
Norway's governing Labour Party, at its convention in Oslo, endorsed Norwegian participation in the North Atlantic security pact.

U.S. President Harry Truman reactivated the United Service Organizations to provide entertainment for a "large peacetime defense establishment."

Politics and government
Prime Minister Basil Brooke led his Ulster Unionist Party to a landslide victory in the Northern Ireland general election, as the UUP took 37 of 52 seats in the House of Commons. The UUP total was an increase of 4 from the most recent election in 1945. The Nationalist Party, led by James McSparran, was second with 9 seats, with the other seats going to various independent candidates.

The Indian government began a roundup of leading Communist, following a suppression of an alleged Communist plot to seize power.

The Burmese government announced that it was ready to grant the Karen ethnic minority a separate state within the Union of Burma.

The Georgia state legislature passed a voter registration bill imposing a literacy test and other measures intended to limit the Negro vote.

Literature
Ezra Pound was awarded the first Bollingen Prize in poetry by the Bollingen Foundation and Yale University for his Pisan Cantos.

Economics and finance
East European and Western nations agreed in Geneva to draw up lists of desired export and import items to facilitate a revival of trade between the two areas.

60 years ago
1959

Died on this date
Daniel A. Reed, 83. U.S. politician and football coach. Mr. Reed, a Republican, represented New York's 43rd District in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1919-1945 and 1953-1959, and New York's 45th District from 1945-1953, chairing several committees as one of the most conservative members of Congress. He was head football coach at the University of Cincinnati (1899-1900); Pennsylvania State University (1903); and Cornell University (1910-1911), compiling a record of 25-14-2. Mr. Reed was still an active Congressman when he died of a heart attack; his vacancy was eventually filled by Charles Goodell (Republican).

Willard Miller, 81. Canadian-born U.S. sailor. Seaman Miller, a native of Maitland, Nova Scotia, enlisted in the U.S. Navy during the Spanish-American War in 1898. He and his brother Harry were both awarded the Medal of Honor for taking part in a small boat operation that cut the underwater telegraph cable off Cienfuegos, Cuba. Willard Miller left the Navy in 1906 and later served with the U.S. Lighthouse Service.

Divorced on this date
U.S. actress Debbie Reynolds and singer Eddie Fisher were divorced in Hollywood.

Diplomacy
U.S. Ambassador to Poland Jacob Beam denounced as "tragic" a wave of rumours that had brought hordes of Polish peasants to the U.S. embassy in Warsaw in the belief that they would be given free emigration to Alaskan farm sites.

Politics and government
British, Turkish, and Greek leaders, meeting in London, signed an "agreed foundation for the final settlement of the problem of Cyprus," granting Cyprus its independence. Cypriot independence took effect on August 16, 1960.

Malaysian police arrested 119 suspects on charges of Communist subversion.

Environment
Physicist Hans Bethe of U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower's Science Advisory Committee told a Senate Disarmament subcommittee that it was now "entirely feasible" to equip satellites with instruments that could detect nuclear explosions and warn of radiation caused by such explosions.

Scandal
A U.S. federal jury in Tacoma, Washington convicted former Teamsters union President Dave Beck on all six counts of two tax evasion indictments.

Economics and finance
U.S. Senators John F. Kennedy (Democrat--Massachusetts) and John Sherman Cooper (Republican--Kentucky) proposed that the United States join in the creation of a "free world mission" to assess India's economic needs and prepare a long-range development program.

50 years ago
1969

Hit parade
#1 single in the U.K. (Record Retailer): (If Paradise Is) Half as Nice--Amen Corner (2nd week at #1)

Australia's top 10 (Go-Set)
1 Lily the Pink--The Scaffold (2nd week at #1)
2 Eloise--Barry Ryan
3 I Started a Joke/Kilburn Towers--The Bee Gees
4 Going Up the Country--Canned Heat
5 Build Me Up Buttercup--The Foundations
6 Son-of-a Preacher Man--Dusty Springfield
7 Edge of Reality/If I Can Dream--Elvis Presley
8 Star Crossed Lovers--Neil Sedaka
9 Hey Jude/Revolution--The Beatles
10 Scarborough Fair--Sergio Mendes and Brasil '66

Singles entering the chart were Ring of Fire by Eric Burdon and the Animals (#31); Atlantis/Love My Shirt by Donovan (#33); and Race with the Devil by the Gun (#40).

Died on this date
Madge Blake, 69. U.S. actress. Mrs. Blake had bit parts in numerous movies, including An American in Paris (1951) and Singin' in the Rain (1952), but was best known for recurring supporting roles in various television comedy series, most notably as Aunt Harriet in Batman (1966-1967). She died of a heart attack after a period of declining health.

Music
Roy Orbison and the Candymen performed at the Stampede Corral in Calgary. The supporting acts were St. John and the Cardinals, Gail Wynters, Grover Mitchell, and the Happy Feeling.

Politics and government
U.S. President Richard Nixon urged Congress to extend the Office of Economic Opportunity one year beyond its June 30 expiration date,but proposed a shift of its Head Start program to the Health, Education, and Welfare Department (HEW) and the Job Corps to the Labor Department. Mr. Nixon also proposed the transfer of the Foster Grandparents Program and Comprehensive Health centres to HEW. Mr. Nixon asserted that OEO's "greatest value is as initiating agency," "to devise new ways to help the poor," and declared: "One of my aims is to free OEO itself to perform these functions more effectively."

Labour
Montréal judge René Lippé was appointed a mediator to end 18 months of rotating strikes of 70,000 Québec teachers.

40 years ago
1979

Hit parade
#1 single in Australia (Kent Music Report): C'mon Aussie C'mon--The Mojo Singers (2nd week at #1)

#1 single in Japan (Oricon Singles Chart): Champion--Alice (4th week at #1)

#1 single in Spain (PROMUSICAE): Catch the Cat--Cherry Laine (2nd week at #1)

Music
The single Here Comes the Night/Baby Blue by the Beach Boys was released on Caribou Records. Here Comes the Night was a new disco recording of a song originally released in 1967 as a track on the album Wild Honey. The single was the Beach Boys' first on Caribou Records. Here Comes the Night was also released as a 12" disco single, with an instrumental version of the song on the B-side.

Weather
An unexpected snowstorm hit the eastern United States, dumping 13-30 inches of snow on the New York-New Jersey area. Nearly two feet of snow fell on Washington, D.C., shutting down the capital.

30 years ago
1989

Hit parade
#1 single in New Zealand (RIANZ): Angel of Harlem--U2 (4th week at #1)

#1 single in Switzerland: Bring Me Edelweiss--Edelweiss (5th week at #1)

World events
Iran's Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who on February 14 had issued a fatwa--a legal judgment--against British author Salman Rushdie because his novel The Satanic Verses (1988) was considered disrespectful toward the prophet Muhammad, rejected the previous day's apology from Mr. Rushdie, who had said, "I profoundly regret the distress that publication has occasioned to sincere followers of Islam." Many Western nations began withdrawing their ambassadors from Iran in protest.

Auto racing
NASCAR
Darrell Waltrip won the Daytona 500 in his 16th attempt, running on fumes after opting not to make a pit stop for fuel with three laps remaining. Ken Schrader and Dale Earnhardt finished second and third, respectively, and they did pit with three laps remaining.

Hockey
NHL
Boston 4 Edmonton 2
Montreal 4 Chicago 4

25 years ago
1994

Hit parade
#1 single in Australia (ARIA): Give It Up--Cut 'N' Move (3rd week at #1)

#1 single in Italy: The Rhythm of the Night--Corona (3rd week at #1)

#1 single in Spain (PROMUSICAE): Right in the Night--Jam & Spoon

#1 single in Denmark (Nielsen Music Control & IFPI): All for Love--Bryan Adams, Rod Stewart and Sting (7th week at #1)

#1 single in Flanders (VRT): La solitudine--Laura Pausini (3rd week at #1)

#1 single in France (SNEP): Happy Nation--Ace of Base

#1 single in the Netherlands (De Nederlandse Top 40): Ik wil niet dat je liegt/Waarheen waarvoor--Paul de Leeuw (6th week at #1)

#1 single in the U.K. (BMRB): Without You--Mariah Carey

U.S.A. Top 10 (Billboard)
1 The Power of Love--Celine Dion (2nd week at #1)
2 All for Love--Bryan Adams, Rod Stewart and Sting
3 The Sign--Ace of Base
4 Breathe Again--Toni Braxton
5 Whatta Man--Salt-N-Pepa with En Vogue
6 Hero--Mariah Carey
7 Without You/Never Forget You--Mariah Carey
8 Understanding--Xscape
9 Getto Jam--Domino
10 So Much in Love--All-4-One

Singles entering the chart were Streets of Philadelphia by Bruce Springsteen (#65); Hey D.J. by Lighter Shade of Brown (#81); Family Affair by Shabba Ranks featuring Patra and Terri & Monica (#84); God by Tori Amos (#89); and Money in the Ghetto by Too $hort (#92). Streets of Philadelphia was from the movie Philadelphia (1993). Hey D.J. was from the movie Mi Vida Loca (1993). Family Affair was from the movie Addams Family Values (1993).

#1 single in the U.S.A. (Cash Box): All for Love--Bryan Adams, Rod Stewart, and Sting (5th week at #1)

Theatre
This blogger and other members of the C.P.R. Stockholders of Edmonton went to Calgary, where we got together with members of the Baker's Dozen, Calgary's Sherlock Holmes society, to attend a performance of the Sherlock Holmes pastiche play Postmortem at the Pleiades Theatre. The two Sherlockian societies gathered afterward for a meal at the Elephant & Castle, and a good time was had by all.

Died on this date
Derek Jarman, 52. U.K. film director. Mr. Jarman was a raging atheist and sodomite whose movies included The Last of England (1987) and Edward II (1991). He died of AIDS, 19 days after his 52nd birthday.

Olympics
Aleksei Urmanov of Russia won the gold medal in the men's figure skating competition at the Winter Olympic Games in Lillehammer, Norway. Bonnie Blair of the United States won her fourth career gold medal in speed skating, winning the women's 500-metre race.

Hockey
NHL
Toronto 3 Edmonton 2

10 years ago
1999

At the movies
October Sky, based on Homer Hickam, Jr.'s Rocket Boys (1997)--a memoir of his days as a teenage rocket enthusiast in West Virginia in the late 1950s--opened in theatres. Jake Gyllenhaal played Homer "Sonny" Hickam, Jr., with Chris Cooper and Laura Dern as his parents. Those who haven't read the book will probably like it better than those who have--I thought they Hollywoodized some things that were actually more interesting in the book--but it's still well worth seeing.

World events
American officials said that the United States had helped Turkey to capture Kurdish Workers' Party leader Abdullah Ocalan in Nairobi four days earlier.

Torontonia
Air Canada Centre, the new home of the Maple Leafs and Raptors, opened.

Crime
U.S. President Bill Clinton issued a posthumous pardon to Henry Ossian Flipper, the first Negro graduate of West Point, who had been accused of embezzlement in 1881.

10 years ago
2009

Died on this date
Kelly Groucutt, 63. U.K. musician. Mr. Groucutt played bass guitar and sang occasional vocals with the rock group Electric Light Orchestra from 1974-1983. He died of a heart attack.

Diplomacy
Barack Obama arrived in Ottawa to begin his first visit to Canada since taking office as President of the United States a month earlier; he met with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper to discuss energy and security issues.