March 26, 2019

850 years ago
1169

Politics and government
Saladin was appointed Vizier of Egypt by Caliph al-Adid.

675 years ago
1344

War
The Siege of Algeciras by the Castillian forces of King Alfonso XI of Spain, assisted by the fleets of the Kingdom of Aragon and the Republic of Genoa, came to an end. It was one of the first European military engagements where gunpowder was used.

370 years ago
1649

Died on this date
John Winthrop, 61 or 62. English-born American politician. Mr. Winthrop was a Puritan lawyer and one of the leading figures in the founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, writing of his vision of the colony as a "city upon a hill." He served as Governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony from 1630-1634; 1637-1640; 1642-1644; and 1646-1649. Mr. Winthrop died in office of natural causes, and was succeeded as Governor by John Endecott.

180 years ago
1839

Sport
The Henley Regatta was established by a proposal from Captain Edmund Gardiner at a public meeting in the town hall of Henley, England.

160 years ago
1859

Born on this date
A. E. Housman. U.K. poet and classicist. Mr. Housman was best known for his 63-poem cycle A Shropshire Lad (1896). Mr. Housman also produced authoritative editions of classical authors such as Juvenal, Manilius, and Lucan. He died on April 30, 1936 at the age of 77.

110 years ago
1909

Born on this date
Chips Rafferty. Australian actor. Mr. Rafferty, born John Goffage, worked at various jobs before becoming an actor, embodying the typical Australian in movies such as Forty Thousand Horsemen (1940) and The Overlanders (1946). He died of a heart attack on May 27, 1971 at the age of 62.

100 years ago
1919

Born on this date
Roger Leger. Canadian hockey player. Mr. Leger was a defenceman with the New York Rangers (1943-44) and Montreal Canadiens (1946-50), scoring 18 goals and 53 assists in 187 regular season games, and 7 assists in 20 playoff games. He died on April 7, 1965, 12 days after his 46th birthday.

Strother Martin. U.S. actor. Mr. Martin was a character actor who appeared in numerous movies and television programs. He was perhaps best known for playing the prison warden in the movie Cool Hand Luke (1967), uttering the line, "What we've got here is failure to communicate." Mr. Martin died of a heart attack on August 1, 1980 at the age of 61.

Hockey
Stanley Cup
Finals
Montreal 0 @ Seattle 0 (2 OT) (Seattle led best-of-five series 2-1-1)

Georges Vezina of the Canadiens and Hap Holmes of the Metropolitans each earned shutouts as neither team was able to score at Seattle Ice Arena in a game played under National Hockey League rules.

90 years ago
1929

Hockey
NHL
Stanley Cup
Semi-Finals
New York Rangers 2 @ Toronto 1 (OT) (New York won best-of-three series 2-0)

Frank Boucher scored at 2:05 of the 1st overtime period to give the Rangers their win over the Maple Leafs at Mutual Street Arena.

80 years ago
1939

War
Nationalist forces began their final offensive of the Spanish Civil War.

Hockey
NHL
Stanley Cup
Quarter-Finals
Montreal 0 @ Detroit 1 (OT) (Detroit won best-of-three series 2-1)

Marty Barry scored at 7:47 of the 1st overtime period to give the Red Wings their win over the Canadiens at Olympia Stadium.

Semi-Finals
New York Rangers 1 @ Boston 4 (Boston led best-of-seven series 3-0)

75 years ago
1944

War
Soviet forces drove German forces back to the Romanian border along a 53-mile front. British commandos reached a point 147 miles from Myitkyina, the main Japanese base above the Burma Road.

Politics and government
The Greek government-in-exile rejected suggestions of the guerrilla group National Liberation Front to broaden the government to include the NLF.

U.S. Representative Martin Dies (Democrat--Texas), chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Un-American Activities, assailed newspaper columnist and radio broadcaster Walter Winchell as the "tool" of an organized movement to undermine the prestige of Congress. In response, Mr. Winchell challenged Rep. Dies to take his case to court.

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

Basketball
NCAA
NIT
Final @ Madison Square Garden, New York
St. John's 47 DePaul 39

The Redmen, coached by Joe Lapchick, defeated DePaul 47-39 to become the first back-to-back winner of the National Invitation Tournament.

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 (12th week at #1)

#1 single in the U.S.A. (Billboard) (Best Seller): Cruising Down the River--Russ Morgan and his Orchestra

U.S.A. Top 10 (Cash Box)
1 Cruising Down the River--Russ Morgan and his Orchestra
--Blue Barron and his Orchestra
--Jack Smith and the Clark Sisters
2 Far Away Places--Bing Crosby
--Perry Como
--Margaret Whiting and the Crew Chiefs
3 Powder Your Face with Sunshine (Smile! Smile! Smile!)--Evelyn Knight and the Stardusters
--Sammy Kaye and his "Swing and Sway" Orchestra
4 I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm--Les Brown and his Orchestra
--The Mills Brothers
5 A Little Bird Told Me--Evelyn Knight and the Stardusters
6 Galway Bay--Bing Crosby
7 Lavender Blue (Dilly Dilly)--Sammy Kaye and his "Swing and Sway" Orchestra
--Dinah Shore
8 Down by the Station--Tommy Dorsey and his Orchestra
--Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians
9 So Tired--Russ Morgan and his Orchestra
10 So in Love--Gordon MacRae
--Dinah Shore

Singles entering the chart were Blue Room by Perry Como (#23); A Rosewood Spinet by Gordon MacRae (#30); Doo Dee Doo on an Old Kazoo by Art Mooney and his Orchestra (#31); and "A" You're Adorable (The Alphabet Song), with versions by Jo Stafford and Gordon MacRae; and Perry Como with the Fontane Sisters (#36).

On the radio
Tales of Fatima, starring Basil Rathbone, on CBS
Tonight's episode: Murder on Stage

War
Iran accused U.S.S.R. troops of raiding Iranian territory on the disputed Soviet-Iranian frontier east of the Caspian Sea.

The Chinese Communist Party Central Committee announced its willingness to begin peace negotiations with the Nationalist government, and named a five-member delegation headed by Chou En-lai to conduct talks.

Politics and government
Former U.S. Vice President Henry Wallace, novelist Norman Mailer, and journalist I.F. Stone were among the participants in discussions at Carnegie Hall in New York sponsored by the Cultural and Scientific Conference for World Peace.

Protest
Americans for Intellectual Freedom, organized by New York University Professor Sidney Hook, held a rally to protest the Cultural and Scientific Conference for World Peace.

Crime
A U.S. federal court in Washington, D.C. sentenced Mildred Gillars, popularly known as "Axis Sally," to 10-30 years in prison and fined her $10,000 for making Nazi radio propaganda broadcasts from Germany during World War II.

Economics and finance
France and Italy agreed to eliminate tariff duties on mutual trade within one year and to establish economic unity by 1955.

Disasters
Three days of tornadoes and gales in the South and Southwestern United States ended with 26 deaths.

Tennis
Pancho Gonzales and Gussie Moran won the men's and women's singles titles, respectively, at the U.S. indoor championships in New York.

Hockey
NHL
Stanley Cup
Semi-Finals
Detroit 2 @ Montreal 3 (Montreal led best-of-seven series 2-1)
Boston 5 @ Toronto 4 (OT) (Toronto led best-of-seven series 2-1)

Woody Dumart's second goal of the game, at 16:14 of the 1st overtime period, gave the Bruins their win over the Maple Leafs at Maple Leaf Gardens.

Basketball
NCAA
Men's Championship
Final @ Seattle
Kentucky 46 Oklahoma 36

60 years ago
1959

Died on this date
Raymond Chandler, 70. U.S. author. Mr. Chandler was one of the major figures in the genre of "hard-boiled" detective fiction. He created the private investigator Philip Marlowe, who was the main character in novels such as The Big Sleep (1939); Farewell, My Lovely (1940); and The Long Goodbye (1953), all of which were made into movies. Mr. Chandler also wrote or co-wrote the screenplays for Double Indemnity (1944); The Blue Dahlia (1946); and Strangers on a Train (1951), the first two of which earned him Academy Award nominations. He drank himself to death.

Defense
Nationalist Chinese President Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek said that his government was "making every possible effort" to give Tibet military aid, and would soon "join force" with Tibetan rebels on the mainland to fight Communist rule.

Academia
The York University Act received royal assent in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, becoming Ontario's tenth university. The non-denominational institution held its first classes in September 1960 in Falconer Hall on the University of Toronto campus, with a total of 76 students.

Journalism
Canadian Parliamentary Press Gallery President James McCook said in Ottawa that radio and television broadcasters could now apply for membership.

Health
The U.S. National Advisory Committee on Radiation, arguing that it would be "unwise to continue the assignment of...the public health aspects of atomic energy to the same agency that has a prime interest in the promotional aspects of the field," recommended that the U.S. radiation protection program be shifted to the Public Health Service.

Economics and finance
King Hussein of Jordan ended aid talks with U.S. officials in Washington.

Newfoundland Premier Joey Smallwood denounced the Canadian government's pledge of $36.5 million in economic aid over three years as inadequate.

Hockey
NHL
Stanley Cup
Semi-Finals
Toronto 2 @ Boston 4 (Boston led best-of-seven series 2-0)
Chicago 1 @ Montreal 5 (Montreal led best-of-seven series 2-0)

50 years ago
1969

Hit parade
#1 single in the U.K. (Record Retailer): I Heard It Through the Grapevine--Marvin Gaye

Australia's Top 10 (Go-Set)
1 Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da/While My Guitar Gently Weeps--The Beatles (2nd week at #1)
2 Edge of Reality/If I Can Dream--Elvis Presley
3 Build Me Up Buttercup--The Foundations
4 Crimson and Clover--Tommy James and the Shondells
5 Star Crossed Lovers--Neil Sedaka
6 I Started a Joke/Kilburn Towers--The Bee Gees
7 Lily the Pink--The Scaffold
8 Adios Amor--Jose Feliciano
9 Fox on the Run--Manfred Mann
10 Touch Me--The Doors

Singles entering the chart were First of May/Lamplight by the Bee Gees (#28); Surround Yourself with Sorrow by Cilla Black (#32); I'm Livin' in Shame by Diana Ross & the Supremes (#33); Hayride by the Flying Circus (#36); and Relax Me by the Groove (#38).

Died on this date
John Kennedy Toole, 31. U.S. author. Mr. Toole was best known for his comic novel A Confederacy of Dunces, which wasn't published during his lifetime. He committed suicide in obscurity (by carbon monoxide poisoning), but his mother took the manuscript of his novel to author Walker Percy, who was enthusiastic about it. A Confederacy of Dunces was published in 1980, and won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. The Neon Bible, a short novel written by Mr. Toole when he was 16, was published in 1989.

Space
The U.S.S.R. launched Meteor, part of the Soviet Union's weather satellite system.

War
Jordan reported that 18 civilians had been killed and 25 wounded when four Israeli bomber jets attacked roadside rest houses on the outskirts of a town 16 miles from Amman. Israel described the target as an Arab guerrilla base. At Jordan's request, the United Nations Security Council looked into the incident.

No casualties were reported in a clash between North Korean and American forces in the DMZ.

Politics and government
The Somali Youth League won 73 of 123 seats in the Somali parliamentary election. The Somali National Congress was second with 11 seats, followed by the Somali Independent Constitutional Party (8) and Somali African National Union (6).

Wearing a scarlet robe with ermine trimmings, Lord Constantine, the son of a Trinidadian cocoa farmer, and once one of the world's great cricket players, was installed as the first Negro member of the U.K. House of Lords, "with all the rights, privileges, preeminences, immunities, and advantages to the degree of baron."

40 years ago
1979

Hit parade
#1 single in Australia (Kent Music Report): Le Freak-Chic (5th week at #1)

#1 single in Japan (Oricon Singles Chart): Young Man (Y.M.C.A.)--Hideki Saijo (3rd week at #1)

#1 single in Spain (PROMUSICAE): Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?--Rod Stewart (4th week at #1)

Died on this date
Jean Stafford, 63. U.S. authoress. Miss Stafford wrote three novels, but was best known for her short stories. She was awarded the 1970 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for The Collected Stories of Jean Stafford. Miss Stafford's husbands included poet Robert Lowell and journalist A.J. Liebling. She drank heavily and suffered from depression, hastening her death from cardiac arrest.

Diplomacy
Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin signed the Camp David peace treaty in Washington, ending nearly 31 years of hostilities between the two countries. President Jimmy Carter signed as a witness for the United States.

Politics and government
Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau obtained a dissolution of Parliament and called a federal election for May 22.

Brian Peckford was sworn in as Premier of Newfoundland, succeeding Frank Moores as head of the province's Progressive Conservative government.

Law
A United States federal judge in Milwaukee granted a government motion to bar The Progressive's publication of an article describing how a hydrogen bomb works. It was the first such injunction to impose prior restraint in the name of national security.

Basketball
NCAA
Men's Championship @ Special Events Center, Salt Lake City
Final
Michigan State 75 Indiana State 64

Magic Johnson scored 24 points for the Spartans as they won the national championship before 15,410 fans, handing the Sycamores their only loss of the season. The Michigan State defense limited Indiana State star Larry Bird to 19 points, his lowest total in the tournament.

30 years ago
1989

Hit parade
#1 single in New Zealand (RIANZ): She Drives Me Crazy--Fine Young Cannibals (4th week at #1)

#1 single in Switzerland: Something's Gotten Hold of My Heart--Marc Almond featuring Gene Pitney (4th week at #1)

Hockey
NHL
Calgary 7 Chicago 5

25 years ago
1994

Hit parade
#1 single in Australia (ARIA): It's Alright--East 17 (4th week at #1)

#1 single in Italy: The Rhythm of the Night--Corona (8th week at #1)

#1 single in Spain (PROMUSICAE): Right in the Night--Jam & Spoon (5th week at #1)

#1 single in Denmark (Nielsen Music Control & IFPI): Look Who's Talking--Dr. Alban

#1 single in Flanders (VRT): La solitudine--Laura Pausini (8th week at #1)

#1 single in France (SNEP): Je danse le Mia--IAM (3rd week at #1)

#1 single in the Netherlands (De Nederlandse Top 40): Without You--Mariah Carey

#1 single in the U.K. (BMRB): Doop--Doop (2nd week at #1)

U.S.A. Top 10 (Billboard)
1 The Sign--Ace of Base (3rd week at #1)
2 Bump n' Grind--R. Kelly
3 Without You/Never Forget You--Mariah Carey
4 The Power of Love--Celine Dion
5 Whatta Man--Salt-N-Pepa with En Vogue
6 So Much in Love--All-4-One
7 Now and Forever--Richard Marx
8 Gin and Juice--Snoop Doggy Dogg
9 Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia)--Us3
10 Breathe Again--Toni Braxton

Singles entering the chart were Pumps and a Bump by M.C. Hammer (#75); How Do You Like It? by Keith Sweat (#78); Got Me Waiting by Heavy D & the Boyz (#89); Lullabye (Goodnight, My Angel) by Billy Joel (#90); and Don't Go Breaking My Heart by Elton John & RuPaul (#92).

U.S.A. top 10 (Cash Box):
1 The Sign--Ace of Base (2nd week at #1)
2 Without You--Mariah Carey
3 The Power of Love--Celine Dion
4 So Much in Love--All-4-One
5 Bump n' Grind--R. Kelly
6 Now and Forever--Richard Marx
7 Gin and Juice--Snoop Doggy Dogg
8 Whatta Man--Salt-N-Pepa with En Vogue
9 Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia)--Us3
10 Streets of Philadelphia--Bruce Springsteen

Singles entering the chart were Because of Love by Janet Jackson (#11); March of the Pigs by Nine Inch Nails (#38); Return to Innocence by Enigma (#51); Player's Ball by Outkast (#53); A Deeper Love by Aretha Franklin (#56); Love Sneakin' Up on You by Bonnie Raitt (#57); Mass Appeal by Gang Starr (#59); You Don't Love Me (No, No, No) by Dawn Penn (#61); Since I Don't Have You by Guns N' Roses (#62); Somethin' to Ride To (Fonky Expedition) by Conscious Daughters (#64); Electric Relaxation (Relax Yourself Girl) by A Tribe Called Quest (#66); and Come to My Window by Melissa Etheridge (#81).

Hockey
NHL
Toronto 6 Quebec 3

20 years ago
1999

War
NATO planes downed two MiGs over Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Crime
"Dr." Jack Kevorkian, who claimed that he had helped 130 people to take their own lives, was found guilty in Oakland County (Michigan) Circuit Court of second-degree murder in the death (by injection of a lethal drug) of Thomas Youk, who was fatally ill with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. A tape of Mr. Youk's death was played on national television. In four previous trials, "Dr." Kevorkian had never been convicted of a death, as the patients in those cases had self-administered lethal drugs. "Dr." Kevorkian acted as his own attorney.

Labour
Ex-miners suffering from lung diseases won the biggest industrial injuries case in British legal history, a compensation deal worth £2 billion.

10 years ago
2009

Died on this date
Griselda Álvarez Ponce de León, 95. Mexican politician. Miss Álvarez represented Jalisco in the Mexican Senate from 1976-1979, and was Governor of Colima from 1979-1985, becoming the first woman to serve as governor of a Mexican state. She died 10 days before her 96th birthday.

Arne Bendiksen, 82. Norwegian singer and songwriter. Mr. Bendiksen was known as the "father of Norwegian pop music," singing and writing numerous hit songs from the 1950s through the 1970s, first as a member of the Monn Keys, and then as a solo performer. He died of heart failure.

Olympics
The Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame in Calgary inducted the 2002 Winter Olympic gold medal men's and women's hockey teams, as well as 2002 pairs figure skaters Jamie Sale and David Pelletier, whose silver medal had been upgraded to gold after a judging vote-swapping scandal.