November 24, 2019

Born on this date
Happy Birthday, Fermina Martinez!

590 years ago
1429

War
Armagnac forces led by Joan of Arc began an unsuccessful siege of La Charité.

380 years ago
1639

Space
The transit of Venus across the Sun was first observed.

170 years ago
1849

Born on this date
Frances Hodgson Burnett. U.K.-born U.S. author. Mrs. Burnett was known for children's books such as Little Lord Fauntleroy (1886); A Little Princess (1905); and The Secret Garden (1911). She died on October 29, 1924, 26 days before her 75th birthday.

160 years ago
1859

Abominations
Charles Darwin’s book The Origin of Species (full title: On the Origin of Species and the Preservation of Favoured Races by Means of Natural Selection) was published in England.

150 years ago
1869

Born on this date
Óscar Carmona. President of Portugal, 1926-1951; Prime Minister of Portugal, 1926-1928. Marshal Carmona joined the Army in 1892, and served as Minister of War in the government of António Ginestal Machado from November-December 1923. He was involved in the May 28, 1926 coup that overthrew the First Republic, and seized power as President on July 9. The Second Republic "Estado Novo" was established in 1933, and Marshal Carmona continued in office until his death on April 18, 1951 at the age of 81.

120 years ago
1899

Born on this date
Ward Morehouse. U.S. journalist and playwright. Mr. Morehouse began his career in his native Savannah, Georgia before moving to Atlanta and then to New York City, where he wrote the Broadway After Dark column for the New York Sun and its successor papers from 1926 until his death. He wrote several play-- including Gentlemen of the Press (1928)--and screenplays. Mr. Morehouse died on December 7, 1966, 13 days after his 71st birthday.

100 years ago
1919

Born on this date
David Kossoff. U.K. actor. Mr. Kossoff appeared in plays, movies, and television programs, but was best known for playing Alf Larkin in the television comedy series The Larkins (1958-1960, 1963-1964) and playing Professor Kokintz in the movies The Mouse that Roared (1959) and Mouse on the Moon (1963). Mr. Kossoff spent his later years campaigning against the use of drugs, as a result of the death in 1976 of his 25-year-old son Paul, lead guitarist with the rock group Free, who died of a pulmonary embolism after years of battling drug addiction. David Kossoff died of liver cancer on March 23, 2005 at the age of 85.

90 years ago
1929

Died on this date
Georges Clemenceau, 88. Prime Minister of France, 1906-1909, 1917-1920. Dr. Clemenceau, an Independent Radical, was a physician and journalist who held various political offices in a career that stretched for almost 50 years. He's perhaps best remembered for representing France in negotiations that produced the Treaty of Versailles after World War I.

Football
NFL
Providence (4-5-2) 20 @ Boston (4-4) 6
Minneapolis (1-9) 0 @ Staten Island (3-2-3) 34
Green Bay (10-0) 20 @ New York (8-1-1) 6
Buffalo (1-7-1) 19 @ Chicago Bears (4-6-1) 7
Dayton (0-6) 0 @ Chicago Cardinals (4-5-1) 19

75 years ago
1944

Music
Rounds, a composition by David Diamond that had been commissioned by the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra, was given its premiere performance by that orchestra.



War
U.S. World War II casualties through November 7 were reported to be 528,795, including 162,860 killed. U.S. forces in Germany reached a line from Kesselingen to Remering, thus threatening the Saar Basin. U.S. planes destroyed three transports and a destroyer escort carrying Japanese reinforcements to Leyte Island in the Philippines. U.S. Pacific Fleet planes struck at Luzon Island, sinking 20 Japanese ships. The first bombing raid against Tokyo from the east and by land was carried out by 88 American aircraft.

Politics and government
Stanislaw Mikolajczyk, Prime Ministe of Poland's government-in-exile in London, resigned after a cabinet disagreement over methods of negotiating with the U.S.S.R.

Defense
The annual convention of the U.S. Middle States Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools urged a delay in universal military training legislation until war emotions subsided.

Labour
The Congress of Industrial Organizations criticized the U.S. National War Labor Board for poor administration and unfortunate policies, and asked for an immediate upward revision of the Little Steel wage formula.

70 years ago
1949

Defense
The West German government agreed to accept Allied control of the Ruhr and refrain from rearming in exchange for Western Allied concessions on reparations and the size of the German merchant fleet.

Politics and government
The Panamanian National Police installed Arnulfo Arias, the defeated candidate in the 1948 election, as President, in order to offset support for deposed President Daniel Chanis.

Journalism
The Argentine government closed the offices of the Associated Press, United Press, and seven Buenos Aires newspapers pending investigation of charges that they had taken money from politicians opposed to Juan Peron during the 1946 election.

Oil
Mexico reported the discovery of a new oil field near the Gulf of Mexico port of Coatzacoalcos.

Economics and finance
The U.K. House of Lords passed the government's steel industry nationalization bill.

Football
NFL
Chicago Bears (7-3) 28 @ Detroit (2-8) 7

AAFC
Cleveland (9-1-2) 14 @ Chicago (4-8) 6
New York (8-4) 17 @ Los Angeles (4-8) 16

Baseball
The Baseball Writers Association of America named Boston Red Sox' left fielder Ted Williams as the Most Valuable Player in the American League for 1949. In 155 games he batted .343--.0003 behind George Kell of the Detroit Tigers in the battle for the AL batting title. Mr. Williams led the league in home runs (43) and tied teammate Vern Stephens for the lead in runs batted in (159). He also led the AL in games; plate appearances (730); doubles (39); total bases (368); and slugging (.650), and tied for the lead in runs (150) and bases on balls (162), as the Red Sox finished second, 1 game behind the New York Yankees.

60 years ago
1959

On television tonight
Alcoa Presents: One Step Beyond, hosted by John Newland, on ABC
Tonight's episode: Reunion, starring Paul Carr, Betty von Furstenberg, and Rory Harrity



Space
General Electric Company displayed a radiotelescope-optical tracking station capable of detecting vehicles in space up to 100,000 miles away.

Diplomacy
The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee made public a report prepared by the Council on Foreign Relations which called on U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower to provide "effective leadership" and a "sense of purpose" in American foreign policy.

Terrorism
Darul Islam terrorists killed 118 people in an attack on Chibugel, West Java.

Energy
U.S. Atomic Energy Commission Chairman John McCone and Vasily Yemelyanov, head of the U.S.S.R. Main Administration for the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy, signed an agreement in Washington establishing a joint Soviet-American nuclear research program.

Economics and finance
East and West Germany signed a trade agreement in Berlin providing for the exchange of $545 million worth of goods in 1960, an increase of $69 million over 1959.

Labour
U.S. District Court Judge F. Dickinson Letts authorized Teamsters union monitors to use subpoenas to obtain evidence on Teamsters President James Hoffa's handling of the funds of his home local in Detroit.

50 years ago
1969

Hit parade
#1 single in Japan (Oricon Singles Chart): Kuroneko no Tango--Osamu Minagawa (3rd week at #1)

#1 single in Spain (PROMUSICAE): Sugar, Sugar--The Archies (2nd week at #1)

On the radio
The Challenge of Space, on Springbok Radio
Tonight's episode: Space Commander

On television tonight
The Joe Namath Show

Figure skater Peggy Fleming and singer Paul Anka were the guests on this episode of Mr. Namath's local New York talk show.



Space
The Apollo 12 command module Yankee Clipper, with astronauts Pete Conrad, Dick Gordon, and Al Bean aboard, splashed down in the Pacific Ocean about three miles from the primary recovery ship, the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Hornet, ending the 10-day lunar mission.









Diplomacy
U.S. President Richard Nixon, in Washington, and Soviet President Nikolai Podgorny, in Moscow, signed the nuclear nonproliferation treaty, making the U.S. and U.S.S.R. the 23rd and 24th countries to ratify the agreement.

Abominations
The U.S. Army announced that 1st Lieutenant William Calley would face a general court martial on charges that he murdered at least 109 men, women, and children during an army sweep through the South Vietnamese village of Songmy on March 16, 1968. A disabled veteran who said he participated in the so-called My Lai massacre told a television interviewer that he killed a number of men, women, and children at Lt. Calley's orders.

Disasters
Four days of torrential rains in Sao Paulo, Brazil resulted in 9 deaths and 4,000 people left homeless.

40 years ago
1979

Hit parade
#1 single in Zimbabwe Rhodesia (Lyons Maid): I Don't Like Mondays--The Boomtown Rats (3rd week at #1)

#1 single in Italy (Hit Parade Italia): Remi, Le Sue Avventure--Ragazzi Di Remi (2nd week at #1)

#1 single in Ireland: When You're in Love with a Beautiful Woman--Dr. Hook (2nd week at #1)

#1 single in the U.K. (BMRB): When You're in Love with a Beautiful Woman--Dr. Hook (2nd week at #1)

Netherlands Top 10 (De Nederlandse Top 40)
1 Crazy Little Thing Called Love--Queen
2 Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A man after midnight)--ABBA
3 We Belong to the Night--Ellen Foley
4 We Got the Whole World in Our Hands--Nottingham Forest with Paper Lace
5 Message in a Bottle--The Police
6 Sure Know Something--Kiss
7 Knock on Wood--Amii Stewart
8 Weekend--Earth and Fire
9 Star--Earth, Wind & Fire
10 It's All in the Bible--Snoopy

Singles entering the chart were Forever Mine by the O'Jays (#82); She's in Love with You by Suzi Quatro (#83); I Wanna Be Your Loverby Prince (#85); Message in a Bottle by the Police (#86); Roller-Skatin' Mate (Part I) by Peaches & Herb (#89); You Know that I Love You by Santana (#90); Do You Love What You Feel by Rufus and Chaka Khan (#96); Cruel Shoes by Steve Martin (#97); and Dig the Gold by Joyce Cobb (#98).

U.S.A. Top 10 (Billboard)
1 No More Tears/Enough is Enough--Barbra Streisand/Donna Summer
2 Babe--Styx
3 Still--Commodores
4 Dim All the Lights--Donna Summer
5 Heartache Tonight--Eagles
6 Please Don't Go--KC and the Sunshine Band
7 You Decorated My Life--Kenny Rogers
8 Send One Your Love--Stevie Wonder
9 Tusk--Fleetwood Mac
10 Pop Muzik--M

Singles entering the chart were Forever Mine by the O'Jays (#82); She's in Love with You by Suzi Quatro (#83); I Wanna Be Your Loverby Prince (#85); Message in a Bottle by the Police (#86); Roller-Skatin' Mate (Part I) by Peaches & Herb (#89); You Know that I Love You by Santana (#90); Do You Love What You Feel by Rufus and Chaka Khan (#96); Cruel Shoes by Steve Martin (#97); and Dig the Gold by Joyce Cobb (#98).

U.S.A. Top 10 (Cash Box)
1 Babe--Styx
2 No More Tears/Enough is Enough--Barbra Streisand/Donna Summer
3 Still--Commodores
4 Heartache Tonight--Eagles
5 Dim All the Lights--Donna Summer
6 Pop Muzik--M
7 Please Don't Go--KC and the Sunshine Band
8 You Decorated My Life--Kenny Rogers
9 Rise--Herb Alpert
10 Escape (The Pina Colada Song)--Rupert Holmes

Singles entering the chart were You Know that I Love You by Santana (#83); She's in Love with You by Suzi Quatro (#85); I Wanna Be Your Lover by Prince (#88); I Do the Rock by Tim Curry (#91); and Only the Strong Survive by REO Speedwagon (#99).

Canada's top 10 (RPM)
1 Heartache Tonight--Eagles (2nd week at #1)
2 Good Girls Don't--The Knack
3 Babe--Styx
4 Lead Me On--Maxine Nightingale
5 Rise--Herb Alpert
6 Don't Stop 'til You Get Enough--Michael Jackson
7 Tusk--Fleetwood Mac
8 Dreaming--Blondie
9 Pop Muzik--M
10 Sail On--Commodores

Singles entering the chart were Under My Thumb by Streetheart (#88); Jealous by Robert Palmer (#90); Chiquitita by ABBA (#94); Deja Vu by Dionne Warwick (#96); Jane by Jefferson Starship (#99); and Do That to Me One More Time by the Captain & Tennille (#100).

Health
The United States General Accounting Office reported that thousands of U.S. troops had been deployed in areas of South Vietnam that had been sprayed with a herbicide known as Agent Orange. The Defense Department had previously denied such allegations. The report claimed that at least 5,000 Marines were within 1/3 of a mile of the sprayed areas during and shortly after defoliation missions during the Vietnam War. The GAO study labelled as "inaccurate" the Defense Department's contention that no U.S. troops were within the sprayed areas until at least a month had passed and the herbicide had decomposed. About 4,800 servicemen had asked the Veterans Administration for treatment of what the veterans believed were health problems such as cancer, impotence, and personality changes that were related to contact with Agent Orange, which contains dioxin, a highly toxic chemical. The Defense Department, Veterans Administration, and Dow Chemical Company, which manufactured the herbicide, denied that there was any firm evidence linking Agent Orange to illnesses.

Hockey
NHL
Boston 1 @ Montreal 3
Philadelphia 2 Edmonton 2
Winnipeg 5 Vancouver 3

30 years ago
1989

Hit parade
#1 single in West Germany (Media Control): Lambada--Kaoma (10th week at #1)

Politics and government
24 members of the Czechoslovakian Politburo and Secretariat--the entire leadership of the ruling Communist Party--resigned to make way for democratic changes. A new Presidium, including 6 holdovers, was named, with Karel Urbanek as general secretary of the party. Alexander Dubcek, who had led the "Prague Spring" reform movement in 1968 before it had been crushed by an invasion from the U.S.S.R., spoke to a crowd of 250,000 in Prague’s Wenceslas Square.

Nicolae Ceausescu, who had been in power since 1965, was unanimously re-elected secretary of the Romanian Communist Party at the party’s 14th Congress in Bucharest.

Health
The Journal of the American Medical Association reported that women who take non-prescription multivitamin pills containing folic acid early in pregnancy reduce the risk of having a baby with certain neurological defects. These neural tube defects include anencephaly (the absence of part or all of the brain); and spina bifida, in which part of the spinal cord protrudes from the spinal column. Mothers who took these pills during the first 6 weeks of pregnancy had only ¼ as many babies with these defects as women who did not take such pills. 23,000 women participated in the study.

25 years ago
1994

Hit parade
#1 single in Finland (Musiikkituottajat – IFPI Finland): Old Pop in an Oak--Rednex (2nd week at #1)

20 years ago
1999

Scandal
Canadian Member of Parliament Jack Ramsay (Reform--Crowfoot), 62, was convicted of attempting to rape a 14-year-old Cree girl on the Pelican Narrows reserve in Saskatchewan when he was a Royal Canadian Mounted Police corporal in 1969. He was convicted under the law that was in place at the time of the incident. Interestingly, it was Mr. Ramsay’s own words that convicted him, not those of his accuser.

10 years ago
2009

Died on this date
Abe Pollin, 85. U.S. sports executive. Mr. Pollin was a successful construction contractor before becoming owner of the Baltimore Bullets/Washington Wizards of the National Basketball Association in 1964. He also owned the Washington Capitals of the National Hockey League and the Washington Mystics of the Women's National Basketball Association, and built the Capital Centre in Landover, Maryland. Mr. Pollin died of a rare brain disease, nine days before his 86th birthday.

Samak Sundaravej, 74. Prime Minister of Thailand, 2008. Mr. Samak was a well-known television chef before entering politics. He served as Thailand's Minister of the Interior (1976-1977), cracking down on suspected Communists. Mr. Samak founded the Thai Citizen Party in 1979, and served as Deputy Prime Minister in the early 1990s. He served as a nonpartisan Governor of Bangkok (2000-2004), and joined the People's Power Party in time to lead it to victory in the 2007 parliamentary election. Mr. Samak took office as Prime Minister on January 9, 2008 and began serving as Minister of Defence a week later, but faced widespread political and public opposition, and demands for his resignation. The Constitutional Court of Thailand disqualified him as Prime Minister on September 9, and he abandoned his effort to retain office three days later. Mr. Samak died of liver cancer.