July 22, 2019

Born on this date
Happy Birthday, Eileen Sasakamoose!

810 years ago
1209

Abominations
Roman Catholic troops massacred the inhabitants of the French town of Béziers in the first major military action of the Albigensian Crusade.

520 years ago
1499

War
Swiss forces decisively defeated the army of Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I in the Battle of Dornach in Switzerland.

390 years ago
1629

Canadiana
David Kirke, Louis Kirke, and Thomas Kirke raised the English flag over Québec and took possession of Fort St-Louis and Samuel de Champlain's Habitation. A year earlier, the Kirke brothers had demanded the surrender of the fort, but Mr. Champlain had driven them off. The French left Québec on September 14; some habitants stayed behind. Four years later, the colony reverted to France. Olivier le Noir was the first black person to arrive at Québec, with the Kirke brothers. The first African slave in Canada was a 6-year-old boy, the property of Sir David Kirke; he was later sold to Father Paul Le Jeune, baptized a Roman Catholic, and given the name Olivier LeJeune.

170 years ago
1849

Born on this date
Emma Lazarus. U.S. poet and activist. Miss Lazarus was best known for her sonnet The New Colossus (1883), lines from which were put on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty. She supported the creation of a Jewish homeland, and died, likely of Hodgkin's lymphoma, on November 19, 1887 at the age of 38.

150 years ago
1869

Died on this date
John Roebling, 63. German-born U.S. engineer. Mr. Roebling moved to the United States in the 1830s and designed suspension bridges, most notably the Brooklyn Bridge--the world's first steel-wire suspension bridge--which began construction in 1870, and was completed in 1883. Mr. Roebling died of tetanus, 24 days after one of his feet was crushed by a ferry in an accident at a dock, resulting in the amputation of his toes. His son Washington was designated to complete construction of the Brooklyn Bridge.

130 years ago
1889

Born on this date
James Whale. U.K.-born U.S. movie director. Mr. Whale was best known for the films Journey's End (1930); Waterloo Bridge (1931); Frankenstein (1931); The Old Dark House (1932); The Invisible Man (1933); and Bride of Frankenstein (1935). He committed suicide by drowning himself in his swimming pool on May 29, 1957 at the age of 67.

125 years ago
1894

Auto racing
The world's first motor race was held in France between the cities of Paris and Rouen. The fastest finisher was Comte Jules-Albert de Dion, but the "official" victory was awarded to Albert Lemaître, driving his 3 horsepower petrol-engined Peugeot.

120 years ago
1899

Born on this date
Sobhuza II. King of Swaziland, 1899-1982. Sobhuza II was four months old when he succeeded his father Ngwane V on the throne. Sobhuza II's grandmother Labotsibeni Mdluli served as regent until 1921, and then Sobhuza II ruled directly until his death. He played a major role in obtaining Swaziland's independence from British rule in 1968. King Sobhuza died on August 21, 1982 at the age of 83; his reign of 82 years 254 days is the longest on record. He had 70 wives who gave him 210 children; his son Mswati III succeeded him on the throne.

110 years ago
1909

Baseball
Rube Carson of the Portland Beavers pitched a 10-inning no-hitter against Los Angeles Angels, winning 1-0 in the first extra-inning no-hitter in the history of the Pacific Coast League.

75 years ago
1944

Hit parade
#1 single in the U.S.A. (Billboard): I'll Be Seeing You--Bing Crosby with John Scott Trotter and his Orchestra (Best Seller--3rd week at #1); I'll Get By (As Long as I Have You)--Harry James and his Music Makers with Dick Haymes (Jukebox--6th week at #1)

War
Soviet troops broke into the streets of Pskov, the last pre-World War II city in German hands. Three allied columns in Italy menaced Florence, while patrols on the west coast pierced the German lines less than 4 miles from Pisa. Chindits in northern Burma captured Pungan and Ngusharawng, 17 miles west of Mogaung.

Politics and government
General Kuniaki Koiso took office as Prime Minister and Admiral Mitsumasa Yonai took office as deputy Prime Minister of Japan. They had been named by Emperor Hirohito to form a new cabinet with "joint responsibility for government leadership." The new leaders announced that they would "work for thoroughgoing realization of the principles of the Greater East Asia Declaration, thereby carrying the sacred war to complete victory, setting the Imperial mind at rest."

The Polish Committee of National Liberation published its manifesto.

Economics and finance
The 44-nation Bretton Woods conference ended with an agreement to establish an international loan fund of $8.8 billion to stabilize world currencies and a World Bank with $9.1 billion in capitalization to help needy nations with loans.

Law
A U.S. appellate court in Chicago reversed the convictions of five people who had been found guilty of treason for harbouring German spy Herbert Haupt. The reversal was based on a U.S. Supreme Court decision prohibiting use of statements by the defendants before their formal arraignment. The death sentence of Hans Haupt, the spy's father, was changed to life imprisonment.

Journalism
The Argentine government lifted censorship of outgoing news dispatches filed by accredited correspondents.

Horse racing
Count Fleet, the 1943 Triple Crown winner and Horse of the Year, was retired after failing to recover from an injury sustained in the 1943 Belmont Stakes.

70 years ago
1949

Television
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission announced the issuance of temporary permits to two stations in New York and Baltimore for experimental colour broadcasts.

Politics and government
The East German People's Council called for reunification of Berlin under a single municipal government and election of an all-German council to create a federal state superceding the West German republic.

The United Nations Trusteeship Council ended its fourth regular session in Lake Success, New York after approving U.S. administration of the Pacific trust territories.

A U.S. Senate Judiciary subcommittee approved a revised Communist control bill providing 10-year jail sentences for plotting to set up a totalitarian government in the United States.

Crime
A French military court in Paris convicted Otto Abetz, German Ambassador to France during the World War II occupation, of complicity in the deportation of French officers, and sentenced him to 20 years in prison.

Business
A U.S. federal court in Trenton, New Jersey issued a consent decree to restrain the American Cast Iron Pipe Company and two other firms from alleged trade restraing in the cast iron pressure pipe industry.

Labour
British dock workers ended their four-week wildcat strike after the Canadian Seamen's Union agreed to drop sanctions against Canadian ships in British ports.

60 years ago
1959

Died on this date
Ralph Savidge, 80. U.S. baseball pitcher. Mr. Savidge played with the Cincinnati Reds (1908-1909), posting a 0-1 record with an earned run average of 5.76 in 5 games. He was 101-88 in 205 games in 7 seasons in the minor leagues from 1904-1911.

Douglas McKay, 66. U.S. politician. Mr. McKay, a Republican, served a term as Mayor of Salem, Oregon and four terms in the Oregon State Senate before serving as Governor of Oregon (1949-1952) and U.S. Secretary of the Interior (1953-1956), attempting to balance environmental concerns and development interests. He died of a heart attack, four weeks after his 66th birthday.

Music
The first Canadian jazz festival opened in Toronto, featuring Oscar Peterson and Maynard Ferguson, and special guest Louis Armstrong.

War
French troops began a major offensive against 5,000 Algerian nationalist guerrillas operating in the mountainous Kabylla area east of Algiers.

Diplomacy
U.S. Vice President Richard Nixon flew to Moscow to begin an 11-day visit to the U.S.S.R.

U.S.S.R. Premier Nikita Khrushchev and Polish Communist Party First Secretary Wladyslaw Gomulka and Prim Minister Józef Cyrankiewicz issued a joint communique in Warsaw pledging support for East German attempts to "liquidate the abnormal situation in West Berlin" if the Geneva conference produced no settlement.

Politics and government
The Indonesian Parliament approved by acclamation President Sukarno's assumption of revolutionary powers under the 1945 constitution.

Energy
Queen Elizabeth II opened the Queen Elizabeth Generating Station of Saskatchewan Power Corporation in Saskatoon.

Baseball
Bobby Avila, playing his first game with the Milwaukee Braves after being acquired from the Boston Red Sox, hit a 2-run home run off Jim O’Toole with 1 out in the bottom of the 9th inning to give the Braves a 5-4 win over the Cincinnati Reds before 18,843 fans at County Stadium in Milwaukee. Warren Spahn pitched a 9-hit complete game victory and hit a solo homer--his second home run of the season--in the 3rd inning.

Earl Averill, Jr.'s grand slam began the scoring in a 7-run 2nd inning for the Chicago Cubs as they coasted to a 7-2 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers before 29,790 fans at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Bob Anderson pitched a 5-hit complete game victory.

Sherm Lollar singled home Nellie Fox with 1 out in the bottom of the 9th to give the Chicago White Sox a 5-4 win over the Boston Red Sox before 11,847 fans at Comiskey Park in Chicago.

50 years ago
1969

Hit parade
#1 single in Switzerland (Swiss Hitparade): Mendocino--Sir Douglas Quintet (5th week at #1)

Space
The Apollo 11 spacecraft continued its return to Earth.

To follow the Apollo 11 mission in real time, go to Apollo 11 in Real Time.

For more on this date, see The Days of Apollo 11.

40 years ago
1979

Hit parade
#1 single in New Zealand (RIANZ): Lay Your Love on Me--Racey (3rd week at #1)

#1 single in Switzerland: Gloria--Umberto Tozzi

Died on this date
J.V. Cain, 28. U.S. football player. James Victor Cain became the first tight end to be taken in the first round of the National Football League draft when he was chosen by the St. Louis Cardinals in 1974. In 55 games from 1974-1977 he caught 76 passes for 1,014 yards and 9 touchdowns. His best season was probably 1976, when he caught 28 passes for 400 yards and 5 touchdowns. At the Cardinals' training camp in 1979, Mr. Cain was coming back from an injury that had kept him out of the lineup for the entire 1978 season. During a practice, he ran a routine pass route, took two steps back toward the huddle at the end of the play, and collapsed and died from congenital heart failure. It was his 28th birthday.

World events
The Sandanista junta in Nicaragua announced that it would try members of the former regime of Anastasio Somoza for war crimes, but that no executions were planned.

War
Israeli warplanes bombed three coastal villages in Lebanon; Lebanon claimed that at least 15 civilians were killed.

Economics and finance
The Bank of Canada raised its lending rate from 11.25% to 11.75%.

Disasters
It was reported that the death toll from a tidal wave that had struck Lomblem Island, Indonesia a week earlier had risen to 539.

30 years ago
1989

Hit parade
#1 single in Italy (FIMI): Viva la mamma--Edoardo Bennato (2nd week at #1)

#1 single in Flanders (Ultratop 50): Marina (Remix 89)--Rocco Granata & the Carnations (5th week at #1)

#1 single in France (SNEP): Johnny, Johnny Come Home--Avalanche (8th week at #1)

#1 single in the U.K. (BMRB): You'll Never Stop Me Loving You--Sonia

Netherlands Top 10 (De Nederlandse Top 40)
1 No More Bolero's--Gerard Joling (6th week at #1)
2 Licence to Kill--Gladys Knight
3 Marina--Rocco & the Carnations
4 Back to Life (However Do You Want Me)--Soul II Soul
5 Batdance--Prince
6 Patience--Guns N' Roses
7 Don't Wanna Lose You--Gloria Estefan
8 Tell it Like it Is--Don Johnson
9 It's the First Time--Loïs Lane
10 Manchild--Neneh Cherry

Singles entering the chart were Say No Go by De La Soul (#22); Have I Told You Lately by Van Morrison (#27); Good Good Feeling by Eric and the Good Good Feeling (#31); You Got It (The Right Stuff) by New Kids on the Block (#34); and The Doctor by the Doobie Brothers (#36).

U.S.A. Top 10 (Billboard)
1 Toy Soldiers--Martika
2 Express Yourself--Madonna
3 If You Don't Know Me by Now--Simply Red
4 Batdance--Prince
5 So Alive--Love and Rockets
6 On Our Own--Bobby Brown
7 Good Thing--Fine Young Cannibals
8 What You Don't Know--Expose
9 Lay Your Hands on Me--Bon Jovi
10 Baby Don't Forget My Number--Milli Vanilli

Singles entering the chart were Heaven by Warrant (#78); Kisses on the Wind by Neneh Cherry (#79); Closer to Fine by Indigo Girls (#85); That's the Way by Katrina and the Waves (#86); My Paradise by the Outfield (#90); Let the Day Begin by the Call (#91); Forget Me Not by Bad English (#92); Smooth Up by BulletBoys (#96); and Stop! by Erasure (#97).

U.S.A. Top 10 (Cash Box)
1 Express Yourself--Madonna
2 If You Don't Know Me by Now--Simply Red
3 Good Thing--Fine Young Cannibals
4 Batdance--Prince
5 Toy Soldiers--Martika
6 Baby Don't Forget My Number--Milli Vanilli
7 I Drove All Night--Cyndi Lauper
8 What You Don't Know--Expose
9 Satisfied--Richard Marx
10 Lay Your Hands on Me--Bon Jovi

Singles entering the chart were Hangin' Tough by New Kids on the Block (#70); Kisses on the Wind by Neneh Cherry (#77); Tell Me I'm Not Dreaming by Robert Palmer (#80); Jackie Brown by John Cougar Mellencamp (#87); and Don't Say You Love Me by Billy Squier (#90).

Died on this date
Frank Thompson, 71. U.S. politician. Mr. Thompson, a Democrat, was a member of the New Jersey General Assembly from 1950-1954 and represented New Jersey's 4th District in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1955-1980. He was accused in the Abscam scandal in 1980, and was defeated in his bid for re-election. Rep. Thompson was convicted on charges of bribery and conspiracy on December 3, 1980, and resigned his eat on December 29, five days before his term expired. He served two years of a three-year prison sentence and was paroled in 1985. Mr. Thompson died of throat cancer, four days before his 71st birthday.

Baseball
Johnny Bench, Carl Yastrzemski, Red Schoendienst, and umpire Al Barlick were inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.

25 years ago
1994

Hit parade
#1 single in Sweden (Topplistan): När vi gräver guld i USA--GES

Space
Comet Shoemaker-Levy finished six days of impacts on Jupiter. 21 fragments of the comet, impacting at 130,000 miles per hour, produced huge plumes of dust and gas and dark discolourations on the planet's surface. One fragment hit with a force of 250 million megatons of TNT.

World events
The United Nations urged refugees in Rwanda to return home, as dysentery and cholera were taking a heavy toll. U.S. President Bill Clinton ordered the U.S. Defense Department to mount a major relief effort.

Defense
U.S. District Court Judge C. Weldon Hauck ordered the Citadel, a state-financed military college in Charleston, South Carolina, to admit Shannon Faulkner, whose admittance had been withdrawn in 1993 after the college had found out that she was a woman. Judge Hauck ruled the Citadel to be in violation of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution's provision for equal protection under the law. The school said it would appeal.

Crime
Former U.S. football star O.J. Simpson was arraigned in Los Angeles for the June 12 murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman. Mr. Simpson pled not guilty to the charges.

Football
CFL
Toronto (1-2) 24 @ Saskatchewan (2-1) 35

Saskatchewan slotback Ray Elgaard caught his 707th career pass, breaking the CFL record formerly held by Rocky DiPietro, helping the Roughriders defeat the Argonauts at Taylor Field in Regina.



20 years ago
1999

Religion
The government of China outlawed the Falun Gong sect, which claimed millions of adherents in China. Falun Gong, or Buddhist Law, emphasizes spirituality, moral values, and good health practices, including exercise. The sect had no apparent political agenda, but had been pressing the government for protection of its rights.

Politics and government
Voting mostly along party lines, the United States House of Representatives voted 223-208 to approve a $792 billion reduction in taxes for individuals and businesses. The bill provided a 10% tax cut over 10 years for everyone; reduced taxes for married couples who paid more taxes than if they were single; cut the capital gains tax; and gave tax breaks to businesses. Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan said that "the timing is not right" for a tax cut as large as that approved by the House. President Bill Clinton promised to veto the bill.

Football
CFL
Winnipeg (1-2) 18 @ Montreal (3-0) 30
Edmonton (1-2) 37 @ Calgary (2-1) 41

Backup quarterback Henry Burris relieved starter Dave Dickenson and rallied the Stampeders to their win at McMahon Stadium. One of the Stampeder scores came on a heads-up play by rookie punter Scott McKenzie, who recovered his own punt and ran 40 yards for a touchdown. It was the first CFL touchdown to be scored in this manner since Dick Adams of the Ottawa Rough Riders had run 80 yards after recovering his own punt in a game in Winnipeg on September 12, 1973. Barefoot kicker Jon Baker played his first CFL game for the Eskimos, replacing injured rookie Matt Kellett, who was still able to punt. Calgary defensive back Eddie Davis suffered a season-ending knee injury.



10 years ago
2009

Died on this date
Billy Parks, 61. U.S. football player. Mr. Parks was a wide receiver at Santa Monica College (1966) and California State University, Long Beach (1967-1969), earning All-American honours in 1968 and setting school records. He played with the San Diego Chargers (1970-1971); Dallas Cowboys (1972); and Houston Oilers (1973-1975), catching 123 passes for 1,826 yards and 7 touchdowns in 60 games. Mr. Parks was known for his outspoken liberal political views, which may explain why teams were willing to trade him. He died of melanoma.