April 19, 2019

490 years ago
1529

Religion
After the Second Diet of Speyer banned Lutheranism, a group of rulers and independent cities protested the reinstatement of the Edict of Worms, banning the teachings of Martin Luther.

480 years ago
1539

Diplomacy
Holy Roman Emperor Charles V signed the Treaty of Frankfurt with Lutherans, represented by Philip Melancthon.

400 years ago
1619

Died on this date
Jagat Gosain, 45. Empress consort of the Mughal Empire, 1605-1619. Jagat Gosain, born Manavati Baiji Lall Sahiba, married the future Emperor Jahangir in 1586, and became consort when he succeeded his father Akbar on the throne. She died 24 days before her 46th birthday.

330 years ago
1689

Died on this date
Christina, 62. Queen of Sweden, 1632-1654. The only surviving legitimate child of King Gustav II, Christina succeeded to the throne at the age of 6 when her father was killed in the Battle of Lutzen. She abdicated her throne in favour of her cousin Charles X and converted from Protestantism to Roman Catholicism in 1654, spending her later years in Rome.

210 years ago
1809

War
An Austrian corps captured Warsaw from Polish forces in the Battle of Raszyn. On the same day, the Austrian main army was defeated by a First French Empire Corps led by Louis-Nicolas Davout in the Battle of Teugen-Hausen in Bavaria, part of a four-day campaign that ended in a French victory.

180 years ago
1839

Diplomacy
The Convention of 1839, signed by Concert of Europe, the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, and the Kingdom of Belgium, established Belgium as a kingdom and guaranteed its neutrality.

140 years ago
1879

Born on this date
Arthur Robertson. U.K. runner. Mr. Robertson won a gold medal in the three-man, three-mile team run at the 1908 Summer Olympic Games in London, and won the silver medal in the 3,200-metre steeplechase. He died on April 18, 1957, the day before his 78th birthday.

130 years ago
1889

Born on this date
Otto Georg Thierack. German politician. Mr. Thierack joined the Nazi Party in 1932, and was Justice Minister of Saxony, Vice President of the Reich Court (1935-1936), and President of the Volksgerichtshof (People's Court) (1936-1942) before serving as Reich Minister of Justice from 1942-1945. He was responsible for mass executions, which led to his arrest by Allied authorities at the end of World War II. Mr. Thierack committed suicide by poisoning himself on October 26, 1946 at the age of 57 before he could be brought before the Nuremberg Judges' Trial.

125 years ago
1894

Born on this date
Elizabeth Dilling. U.S. writer and activist. Mrs. Dilling was an anti-Communist activist who was best known for her book The Red Network—A Who's Who and Handbook of Radicalism for Patriots (1934). Her criticism of Communism included criticism of Jews, which tended to limit her influence to the Midwestern United States. Mrs. Dilling opposed American involvement in World War II, which led to her being one of 28 people being charged with conspiracy to commit insubordination in the armed forces. The trial dragged on from 1942-1944, and a mistrial was declared when Judge Edward Eicher died. The charges were dismissed in 1946, and Mrs. Dilling's influence waned until her death on May 26, 1966 at the age of 72.

120 years ago
1899

Born on this date
George O'Brien. U.S. actor. Mr. O'Brien was a leading man in the 1920s and '30s, best known for his co-starring role in Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927). He died on September 4, 1985 at the age of 86, four years after suffering a stroke.

100 years ago
1919

At the movies
Bolshevism on Trial, directed by Harley Knoles, and starring Robert Frazer, Leslie Stowe, and Howard Truesdale, opened in theatres. The film was an adaptation of the novel Comrades (1909) by Thomas Dixon.



Born on this date
Sol Kaplan. U.S. composer. Mr. Kaplan wrote scores for numerous films and television programs. The movies he composed for included The Tell-Tale Heart (1941); Tales of Manhattan (1942); Titanic (1953); Salt of the Earth (1954); and The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965). Mr. Kaplan, who was blacklisted for a time in the 1950s for refusing to cooperate with anti-Communist investigators, died on November 14, 1990 at the age of 71.

90 years ago
1929

Track and field
Johnny Miles of Canada won the 33rd Boston Marathon in 2:33:08.6.

75 years ago
1944

War
More than 1,000 Allied planes attacked French railway junctions at Noisy-le-Sec, Juvisy, Rouen, and Tergnier. Nazi troops launched strong counterattacks in the southeastern corner of Poland. U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt said that the future of Rome rested with the Germans, who were using the city for purely military reasons. After breaking down Japanese roadblocks, Allied forces drove Japanese troops beyond the Imphal plane in the Indian state of Manipur.

Diplomacy
Bolivian Labour Minister Victor Andarade said that U.S. failure to recognize Bolivia had nullified plans to increase tin production.

Economics and finance
The U.S. House of Representatives voted to extend Lend-Lease until June 30, 1945.

Politics and government
Maine Governor Sumner Sewall signed a bill permitting the use of the U.S. federal ballot and liberalizing sections of the absentee voting law in order to permit U.S. armed services personnel to vote.

Journalism
Panama City reported that all newspapers in El Salvador except the government organ Diario Nuevo had been suspended.

Crime
A special court commission found Hans Max Haupt sane. Mr. Haupt, father of a Nazi saboteur who had been executed, was ordered by U.S. Federal Court Judge Barnes to stand trial on May 15 on charges of treason.

Society
Representatives of 14 U.S. state alcohol control commissions, meeting in New York City, urged a resumption of the production of alcoholic beverages.

Track and field
St.-Barnabé, Quebec native Gérard Côté won the Boston Marathon for the second straight year and the third time in his career, in a time of 2:28:28.6.

Football
NFL
The Boston Yanks franchise was activated, and the Cleveland Rams resumed operations after a one-year hiatus.

70 years ago
1949

On television tonight
Suspense, on CBS
Tonight's episode: The Creeper, starring Nina Foch and Anthony Ross

Died on this date
Stephen Wise, 75. Austro-Hungarian born U.S. clergyman. Rabbi Wise was a Reform Jewish rabbi who served as President of the Federation of American Zionists and as the founding President of the World Jewish Congress, holding the latter position from 1936 until his death.

Ulrich Salchow, 71. Danish-born Swedish figure skater. Mr. Salchow won 10 world championships from 1901-1911, nine European championships from 1898-1913, and won the gold medal when figure skating was an event at the 1908 Summer Olympic Games in London. In 1909 he became the first figure skater to execute a jump, which was subsequently named in his honour.

War
The Chinese Nationalist government rejected the Communist ultimatum, but asked for a cease-fire and further negotiations.

Economics and finance
U.S. President Harry Truman signed the $5.4-billion authorization for the Marshall Plan's second year.

Disasters
An earthquake struck central Chile, causing 62 deaths.

Basketball
NBL
Finals
Anderson 88 @ Oshkosh 64 (Anderson won best-of-five series 3-0)

The Duffey Packers completed the series sweep over the All-Stars in the National Basketball League's last game before it merged with the Basketball Association of America to become the National Basketball Association.

60 years ago
1959

Hit parade
#1 single in France (IFOP): La marche des gosses--Annie Cordy (6th week at #1)

On television tonight
Alfred Hitchcock Presents, on CBS
Tonight's episode: The Impossible Dream, starring Franchot Tone, Carmen Mathews, and Mary Astor

Died on this date
Dick Linder, 36. U.S. auto racing driver. Mr. Linder participated in the NASCAR circuit from 1948-1956, winning 3 races, all in 1950. He then moved into Championship Car racing, and was killed in a crash during a race at Trenton Speedway in New Jersey, 13 days after his 36th birthday.

World events
La Paz militiamen put down an uprising by the rightist Bolivian Socialist Falange Party when the rebels attempted to seize the City Hall, military barracks, and state radio station.

Terrorism
Muslim terrorists killed at least 8 people, wounded 80, and kidnapped 20 others, principally Muslim candidates, in attacks timed to coincide with the beginning of Algerian municipal elections.

Politics and government
Arguing that the British parliamentary system produced a party dictatorship in multi-racial countries, Ceylonese Prime Minister S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike proposed replacing it in Ceylon with an elective executive-committee government.

Abominations
Ida Pidoux became the first female voter in Swiss history when she cast a ballot in a Vaud Canton local election.

50 years ago
1969

Hit parade
#1 single in Australia (Kent Music Report): Where Do You Go To (My Lovely)--Peter Sarstedt

#1 single in Rhodesia (Lyons Maid): Crimson and Clover--Tommy James and the Shondells (5th week at #1)

#1 single in France: Oh Lady Mary--David Alexandre Winter (3rd week at #1)

#1 single in Italy (FIMI): Eloise--Barry Ryan (2nd week at #1)

#1 single in West Germany (Media Control): Liebesleid--Peter Alexander (2nd week at #1)

#1 single in Ireland (IRMA): Boom Bang-a-Bang--Lulu

#1 single in the U.K. (New Musical Express): I Heard It Through the Grapevine--Marvin Gaye (3rd week at #1)

Netherlands Top 10 (De Nederlandse Top 40)
1 Why--The Cats (5th week at #1)
2 Goodbye--Mary Hopkin
3 Don Juan--Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich
4 The Walls Fell Down--The Marbles
5 The Last Seven Days--Gloria
6 Where Do You Go To (My Lovely)--Peter Sarstedt
7 Ensemble--Mireille Mathieu
8 First of May--The Bee Gees
9 5th Symphony Beethoven--Ekseption
10 River Deep - Mountain High--Ike & Tina Turner

Singles entering the chart were Seasons in the Sun by the Fortunes (#21); Oei Oei Oei (Dat Was Me Weer Een Loei) by Johan Cruyff (#24); Arrivederci Ans by Ronnie Tober (#27); Révolution! by Nina Simone (#33); Plastic Man by the Kinks (#37); Let Me Tell Ya by UK. Jones (#38); Mr. Music Man by Tee-Set (#39); and Afterglow of Your Love by Small Faces (#40).

U.S.A. Top 10 (Billboard)
1 Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In (The Flesh Failures)--The 5th Dimension (2nd week at #1)
2 You've Made Me So Very Happy--Blood, Sweat & Tears
3 It's Your Thing--The Isley Brothers
4 Only the Strong Survive--Jerry Butler
5 Dizzy--Tommy Roe
6 Galveston--Glen Campbell
7 Hair--The Cowsills
8 Twenty-Five Miles--Edwin Starr
9 Time of the Season--The Zombies
10 Rock Me--Steppenwolf

Singles entering the chart were The Composer by Diana Ross and the Supremes (#53); I Can't See Myself Leaving You by Aretha Franklin (#74); Earth Angel (Will You Be Mine) by the Vogues (#85); Goodbye by Mary Hopkin (#86); (We've Got) Honey Love by Martha Reeves & the Vandellas (#87); I've Been Hurt by Bill Deal & the Rhondels (#89); Sorry Suzanne by the Hollies (#96); I'm a Drifter by Bobby Goldsboro (#99); and July You're a Woman by Pat Boone (#100).

U.S.A. Top 10 (Cash Box)
1 Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In (The Flesh Failures)--The 5th Dimension (3rd week at #1)
2 You've Made Me So Very Happy--Blood, Sweat & Tears
3 Hair--The Cowsills
4 Galveston--Glen Campbell
5 It's Your Thing--The Isley Brothers
6 Dizzy--Tommy Roe
7 Only the Strong Survive--Jerry Butler
8 Rock Me--Steppenwolf
9 Twenty-Five Miles--Edwin Starr
10 Time of the Season--The Zombies

Singles entering the chart were I Can't See Myself Leaving You by Aretha Franklin (#58); Goodbye by Mary Hopkin (#75); Too Busy Thinking About My Baby by Marvin Gaye (#76); (We've Got) Honey Love by Martha Reeves & the Vandellas (#77); Singing My Song by Tammy Wynette (#82); I'm a Drifter by Bobby Goldsboro (#86); Day is Done by Peter, Paul and Mary (#87); Medicine Man (Part I) by the Buchanan Brothers (#88); Sausalito by Al Martino (#89); I Can't Do Enough by the Dells (#93); and I've Been Hurt by Bill Deal & the Rhondels (#95).

Calgary's Top 10 (Glenn's Music)
1 Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In (The Flesh Failures)--The 5th Dimension (2nd week at #1)
2 Hair--The Cowsills
3 Indian Giver--1910 Fruitgum Co.
4 Things I'd Like to Say--The New Colony Six
5 Dizzy--Tommy Roe
6 Sweet Cherry Wine--Tommy James and the Shondells
7 Rock Me--Steppenwolf
8 Mendocino--Sir Douglas Quintet
9 Gimme Gimme Good Lovin'--Crazy Elephant
10 Galveston--Glen Campbell
Pick hit of the week: Idaho--The 4 Seasons

War
An intensive search for survivors of the American reconnaissance plane shot down by North Korea over the Sea of Japan four days earlier was called off after the bodies of two crewmen and some wreckage from the plane was found.

The United States presented a squadron of 20 jet fighter-bombers to the South Vietnamese Air Force as the pace of the Vietnam war picked up.

World events
A new wave of civil rights strife between 1,000 Catholics and 200 Protestants in Northern Ireland broke out in Londonderry. 57 policemen and an indefinite number of civilians were injured in this typical Irish social event.

Hockey
NHL
Stanley Cup
Semi-Finals
St. Louis 5 @ Los Angeles 2 (St. Louis led best-of-seven series 3-0)

CHL
Adams Cup
Finals
Dallas 5 @ Oklahoma City 4 (Dallas won best-of-seven series 4-1)

40 years ago
1979

War
Israeli units and Palestinian guerrillas clashed along the Lebanese border. Right-wing Lebanese militia attacked United Nations peacekeeping forces in the area.

Energy
Disclosure of U.S. Atomic Energy Commission records revealed that the administration of President Dwight Eisenhower told the AEC in 1953 to confuse the public about the possible consequences of fallout from nuclear testing in southern Utah.

Aviation
Federal safety officials in the United States grounded 1,000 Sikorsky S-61 helicopters worldwide, after evidence in the Newark, New Jersey crash involving that model showed that a mechanical defect was responsible for the accident.

Hockey
IIHF Men's World Championships
U.S.S.R. 5 Canada 2

Baseball
In the second annual Pearson Cup exhibition game, the Montreal Expos and Toronto Blue Jays played to a 4-4 tie in 11 innings at Exhibition Stadium in Toronto.

30 years ago
1989

Hit parade
#1 single in Finland (Musiikkituottajat – IFPI Finland): Like a Prayer--Madonna (5th week at #1)

#1 single in Sweden (Topplistan): Like a Prayer--Madonna (3rd week at #1)

At the movies
The Return of the Musketeers, directed by Richard Lester, and starring Michael York, Oliver Reed, and many others, opened in theatres in Europe. The film was a sequel to The Three Musketeers (1973) and The Four Musketeers (1974), both of which had been directed by Mr. Lester, with many of the original cast members reprising their roles.

Died on this date
Daphne du Maurier, 81. U.K. authoress. The daughter of actor Gerald du Maurier, Miss du Maurier was known for novels such as Jamaica Inn (1936); Rebecca (1938); and Frenchman's Creek (1941), and novelettes such as The Birds (1952).

Disasters
A gun turret exploded on the USS Iowa, killing 47 sailors. The U.S. Navy battleship was participating in a naval exercise about 300 miles north of Puerto Rico, and the crew was loading the guns when the explosion occurred.

Hockey
NHL
Stanley Cup
Division Finals
Boston 2 @ Montreal 3 (OT) (Montreal led best-of-seven series 2-0)

25 years ago
1994

Politics and government
Zulu Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi, leader of the Inkatha Freedom Party, dropped his demand that the South African "homeland" of KwaZulu be declared a sovereign monarchy, and agreed to participate in South Africa's first universal-suffrage elections scheduled for April 26-28.

Crime
A U.S. District Court jury in Los Angeles awarded $3,816,535.45 in compensatory damages to Negro criminal Rodney King, who had been beaten by Los Angeles police in 1991. Mr. King, the plaintiff, had turned down a pretrial offer of $1.25 million. The four police officers had been acquitted of criminal charges in 1992, but two of them had been sentenced to prison for violating Mr. King's civil rights.

Economics and finance
The United States Commerce Department reported that the U.S. trade deficit in February had been $9.71 billion.

20 years ago
1999

Died on this date
Hermine Braunsteiner, 79. Austrian-born German war criminal. SS Helferin Braunsteiner was a female camp guard at Ravensbruck and Majdanek concentration camps during World War II, and was known for her extreme sadism. She earned the nickname "The Stomping Mare" for stomping women to death, and whipped at least two women to death. She served two years in prison (1948-1950) in Austria for crimes against humanity, and was then given amnesty. Miss Braunsteiner met an American named Russell Ryan and they emigrated to Halifax, Nova Scotia, marrying in 1958, moving to the United States in 1959. Mrs. Ryan became an American citizen in 1963, but Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal, acting upon information that he had received from former concentration camp inmates who had met him in Tel Aviv, traced her whereabouts to New York City. Mrs. Ryan was denaturalized in 1971, and in 1973 became the first Nazi war criminal to be extradited from the United States to face trial in Germany. A lengthy trial of Mrs. Ryan and 15 other defendants resulted in her receiving a life sentence in 1981. Complications from diabetes led to her release on medical grounds in 1996, and she died in Bochum, Germany.

Politics and government
The German Bundestag returned to Berlin from Bonn, where it had been located since 1949.

Labour
Toronto Transit Commission drivers, fare collectors, and maintenance staff walked off the job, shutting down down the TTC and leaving 800,000 riders scrambling to get to work; the 7,800 union members went back to work two days later after agreeing to arbitration.

10 years ago
2009

Died on this date
J. G. Ballard, 78. Chinese-born U.K. author. James Graham Ballard, the son of an English business executive working in Shanghai, spent the last two years of World War II in a Japanese internment camp in China, which probably influenced the dystopian nature of his novels, which included Crash (1973); High-Rise (1975); and Empire of the Sun (1984). He died after a three-year battle with cancer.