December 31, 2019

Born on this date
Happy Birthday, Mike Matson!

790 years ago
1229

War
James I "the Conqueror," King of Aragon, entered Medina Mayurqa (now known as Palma, Spain), thus consummating the Christian reconquest of the island of Majorca.

300 years ago
1719

Died on this date
John Flamsteed, 73. English astronomer. Rev. Flamsteed, an ordained deacon in the Church of England, was appointed the first Astronomer Royal in 1675. He made some of the first observations of Uranus in 1690, erroneously thinking it was a star. Rev. Flamsteed prepared the 3,000-star catalogue Catalogus Britannicus and the Atlas Coelestis, both of which were published after his death.

260 years ago
1759

Business
Arthur Guinness signed a 9,000-year lease at £45 per annum, and started brewing Guinness beer.

150 years ago
1869

Born on this date
Henri Matisse. French artist. Mr. Matisse was a painter and sculptor who was one of the major figures in 20th century modern art, and was often compared with Pablo Picasso. He was known for the use of colour in his paintings. Mr. Matisse died on November 3, 1954 at the age of 84.

140 years ago
1879

Technology
Thomas Edison gave his first public demonstration of the incandescent light bulb, at his laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey.

130 years ago
1889

Died on this date
George Kerferd, 58. U.K.-born Australian politician. Mr. Kerferd, a native of Liverpool, emigrated to Victoria in 1853, and became a beer and wine merchant. He represented Ovens in the Victoria Legislative Assembly from 1864-1886, and held several cabinet posts, including several terms, totalling eight years, as Attorney General. Mr. Kerferd was Premier of Victoria from 1874-1875. He was a judge on the Supreme Court of Victoria from January 1, 1886 until his death.

125 years ago
1894

Born on this date
Ernest John Moeran. U.K. composer. Mr. Moeran was English, but partly of Irish extraction, whose work was strongly influenced by English and Irish folk music. He wrote two symphonies and other orchestral, vocal, and chamber works, as well as works for piano. Mr. Moeran's life and work were interrupted by periods of heavy drinking. He had a fatal cerebral hemorrhage and fell into water near his cottage in Ireland on December 1, 1950, 30 days before his 56th birthday.

120 years ago
1899

Born on this date
Silvestre Revueltas Sánchez. Mexican composer and conductor. Mr. Revueltas was a violinist who served as assistant conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra of Mexico (1929-1935), composing film scores, chamber music, and orchestral works. He had difficulty earning money in the late 1930s, and drank himself to death on October 5, 1940 at the age of 40.

100 years ago
1919

Born on this date
Tommy Byrne. U.S. baseball pitcher. Mr. Byrne played with the New York Yankees (1943, 1946-1951, 1954-1957); St. Louis Browns (1951-1952); Chicago White Sox (1953); and Washington Nationals (1953), compiling a record of 85-69 with an earned run average of 4.11 in 281 games, while batting .238 with 14 home runs and 98 runs batted in in 377 games. He drove New York manager Casey Stengel to distraction with his wildness, and led the American League in bases on balls for three straight seasons (1949-1951) and in hit batsmen four times in five years (1948-1952). Mr. Byrne led the AL in winning percentage in 1950 (16-5, .762), and helped the Yankees win World Series championships in 1949, 1950, and 1956. He was Mayor of Wake Forest, North Carolina from 1973-1987. Mr. Byrne died on December 20, 2007, 11 days before his 88th birthday.

90 years ago
1929

Music
Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians played at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York. The performance was carried on a coast-to-coast radio broadcast, and the band's rendition of Auld Lang Syne helped to popularize the song as a New Year's Eve anthem.

75 years ago
1944

Hit parade
#1 single in Australia (Kent Music Report): A Lovely Way to Spend An Evening--The Ink Spots; Frank Sinatra (1st month at #1)

War
Hungary declared war on Germany. Operation Nordwind, the last major German offensive on the Western Front, began. After a 48-hour battle, U.S. forces seized Rochefort on the western end of the German salient in Belgium. U.S. troops attacked north of Bastogne, while other units advanced against the Germans between Bastogne and St. Hubert. Remagen was captured. U.S. forces on the west coast of Italy advanced 1 1/2 miles north of Barga and captured Sommocolonia. U.S. aircraft under the command of General Douglas MacArthur made their first daylight raid on Formosa.

Politics and government
The Polish Committee of National Liberation, operating from Lublin with the cooperation of the U.S.S.R., proclaimed itself Poland's provisional government.

The Greek government of Prime Minister Georgios Papandreou left office, as Archbishop Damaskinos was sworn in as Regent of Greece. ELAS forces accepted the development as the basis for truce negotiations in the civil war.

In his New Year's message, Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek promised the Chinese people a constitutional government before the end of World War II.

Society
Columbia University President Nicholas Murray Butler said in a year-end message in New York that unless the world was rebuilt on a moral foundation the end of all that had been accomplished in 5,000 years would not be far off.

Disasters
48 people were killed and more than 80 injured when the second section of the Southern Pacific Railroad's Pacific Limited rammed into the rear of the first section, 18 miles west of Ogden, Utah.

70 years ago
1949

Hit parade
#1 single in Australia (Kent Music Report): Lavender Blue (Dilly Dilly)--Burl Ives; Dinah Shore (2nd week at #1)

#1 single in the U.S.A. (Billboard) (Best seller): Mule Train--Frankie Laine and the Muleskinners (6th week at #1)

U.S.A. Top 10 (Cash Box)
1 Mule Train--Frankie Laine and the Muleskinners (5th week at #1)
--Bing Crosby
--Vaughn Monroe and his Orchestra
--Tennessee Ernie
2 I Can Dream, Can't I?--The Andrews Sisters
3 Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer--Gene Autry and the Pinafores
4 Don't Cry, Joe (Let Her Go, Let Her Go, Let Her Go)--Gordon Jenkins and his Orchestra
5 Slipping Around--Margaret Whiting and Jimmy Wakely
6 A Dreamer's Holiday--Perry Como and the Fontane Sisters
--Buddy Clark with the Girl Friends
7 Dear Hearts and Gentle People--Dinah Shore
--Bing Crosby
8 Jealous Heart--Al Morgan
9 The Old Master Painter--Dick Haymes
--Richard Hayes
--Phil Harris and his Orchestra
10 That Lucky Old Sun--Frankie Laine
--Vaughn Monroe and his Orchestra

Singles entering the chart were the version of The Old Master Painter by Phil Harris and his Orchestra; Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo (The Magic Song) by Jo Stafford and Gordon MacRae (#31); Careless Kisses by Russ Morgan and his Orchestra (#33); Dill Pickles by Pee Wee Hunt and his Orchestra (#36); and The Meadows of Heaven by Perry Como (#40). Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo (The Magic Song) was the other side of Echoes, charting at #18. The Meadows of Heaven was the B-side of A Dreamer's Holiday.

Theatre
Born Yesterday closed at Henry Miller's Theatre on Broadway in New York after 1,642 performances since February 4, 1946.

Died on this date
Raimond Valgre, 36. Estonian songwriter. Mr. Valgre, born Raimond Tiisel, played piano and other instruments, and wrote some of Estonia's best-known songs. He served with the orchestra of the 8th Estonian Rifle Corps of the Soviet Red Army during World War II, and became a drunkard as a result of his war experiences. Mr. Valgre's music was banned by Soviet authorities in 1948; he was killed in an accident.

World events
A Soviet military court in Khabarovsk sentenced 12 Japanese officers to prison terms of 2-25 years for planning to wage germ warfare against the U.S.S.R.

Diplomacy
Israel rejected a United Nations Trusteeship Council request to remove her capital from the new city of Jerusalem.

Communist authorities ordered the staff of the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) to leave China within a month.

Crime
Former U.S. Justice Department employee Judith Coplon asked the U.S. Supreme Court to order a retrial of government espionage charges against her on grounds that the Federal Bureau of Investigation had illegally tapped her telephone.

Business
American Telephone & Telegraph Board Chairmen Walter Gifford retired, and was succeeded by President Leroy Wilson.

Labour
The U.S. National Labor Relations Board issued its fourth anti-closed shop ruling against the International Typographical Union, ordering the union to stop attempting to impose such conditions on commercial printing shops in Chicago, Detroit, and other cities.

60 years ago
1959

Hit parade
#1 single in Norway (VG-lista): What Do You Want to Make Those Eyes at Me For?--Emile Ford and the Checkmates (2nd week at #1)

On television tonight
The Untouchables, starring Robert Stack, on ABC
Tonight's episode: The Underground Railway, with guest stars Virginia Vincent, Jo De Santis, and Cliff Robertson

Married on this date
U.S. actor Ernest Borgnine and Mexican actress Katy Jurado were married in Cuernavaca.

War
French-led Cameroonian troops killed at least 30 guerrillas in repulsing an attack on the Douala airport and police headquarters.

The South Korean Navy denied responsibility for the attack on a Soviet hydrographic ship.

Defense
General Randolph Pate retired as Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps.

Politics and government
The day after Prime Minister Phoui Sananikone submitted his resignation, King Savang Vathana of Laos placed the country under Army control pending formation of a new cabinet.

Labour
A New York City transit strike was averted when the Transport Workers Union and New York Transit Authority agreed on a two-year contract providing $35 million in raises and other benefits for 38,000 workers.

Football
NCAA
Sun Bowl
New Mexico State 28 North Texas State 8

50 years ago
1969

On television tonight
Then Came Bronson, starring Michael Parks, on NBC
Tonight's episode: Sibyl

Died on this date
Jock Yablonski, 59. U.S. labour leader. Mr. Yablonski, his wife, and their 25-year-old daughter were shot to death in their Clarksville, Pennsylvania home. The bodies weren't discovered until January 5, 1970. Mr. Yablonski had lost a bitterly-fought election on December 9 to Tony Boyle for the presidency of the United Mine Workers of America. The election was widely believed to be corrupt, and on December 18, Mr. Yablonski had asked the United States Department of Labor to investigate.

World events
An Israeli crew that had defied a French arms embargo and spirited five gunboats out of the port of Cherbourg on December 25 reached the Israeli port of Haifa.

Yellowknifiana
A pyrotechnics display in Petitot Park on Yellowknife’s last night as a town fizzled when most of the fireworks didn’t work, as a large number of people (including this blogger and his father) stood there freezing.

40 years ago
1979

Hit parade
#1 single in Australia (Kent Music Report): Video Killed the Radio Star--The Buggles (5th week at #1)

#1 single in Japan (Oricon Singles Chart): Ihōjin--Sayuri Kume (4th week at #1)

#1 single in Spain (PROMUSICAE): Sin Amor (Dghingis Khan)--Iván (3rd week at #1)

Died on this date
John "Shorty" Powers, 57. U.S. military officer. Air Force Colonel Powers served in World War II and the Korean War, and helped to establish the U.S. Air Force's first Community Relations Program in 1955. He acquired experience in public relations over the next few years, which led to his appointment in April 1959 as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Space Task Group's public affairs officer. Col. Powers became famous from 1961-1963 as the "voice of Project Mercury," describing the first U.S. manned space flights. He was best known for coining the phrase "A-OK." Col. Powers enjoyed the limelight, but a dispute with NASA headquarters over publicity for the Mercury 9 flight in 1963 led to his resignation from the Air Force in 1964. He became part owner of the radio station KMSC-FM in Clear Lake, Texas, from which he distributed coverage of the Gemini and Apollo manned space missions. Col. Powers did commercials for various products, lectured on the space program, and had a newspaper column titled Space Talk in 1967, but eventually drank himself to death in Phoenix, where he had moved in 1978.

Music
Andre Kostelanetz conducted the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra in A Night in Old Vienna at War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco. It turned out to be Mr. Kostelanetz's last concert; he went on vacation in Haiti, and died there of pneumonia on January 13, 1980.

War
A brief gun battle broke out in Kabul between dissident elements of the Afghan army and the Soviets, but the Afghan capital stayed firmly under Soviet control. Islamic rebels, who had been fighting the Afghan government for two years and were thought to control perhaps 2/3 of the countryside, fought skirmishes with Soviet troops at scattered points throughout the country. They were aided and often armed by Afghan army deserters. U.S. President Jimmy Carter accused Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev of "not telling facts accurately" in a December 28 cable in which Mr. Brezhnev claimed that Afghanistan had invited the U.S.S.R. to intervene. According to Mr. Carter, Mr. Brezhnev’s explanation was "obviously false, because the person he claimed invited him in, President Amin, was murdered or assassinated after the Soviets pulled their coup."

Diplomacy
The United Nations Security Council voted 11-0 to give Iran one week to release the hostages being held at the United States embassy in Tehran before deciding on economic sanctions. UN Secretary General Kurt Waldheim left for Tehran in an effort to negotiate the release of the hostages.

Hockey
NHL-U.S.S.R. (exhibition)
Super Series ‘80
Central Red Army 2 @ Montreal 4



30 years ago
1989

Hit parade
#1 single in New Zealand (RIANZ): Escaping--Margaret Urlich (5th week at #1)

#1 single in Switzerland: Girl I'm Gonna Miss You--Milli Vanilli (5th week at #1)

Hockey
Winnipeg 3 Edmonton 2

NHL-U.S.S.R. (exhibition)
Super Series ‘90
Moscow Dynamo 7 @ Toronto 4 (exhibition)

See video.

Football
NFL
NFC Wild Card Playoff
Los Angeles Rams 21 @ Philadelphia 7



AFC Wild Card Playoff
Pittsburgh 26 @ Houston 23 (OT)



25 years ago
1994

Hit parade
#1 single in Australia (ARIA): Zombie--The Cranberries (3rd week at #1)

#1 single in Italy: Strange Love--Kina (2nd week at #1)

#1 single in Spain (PROMUSICAE): Kaña de España--J. Rapallo

#1 single in Denmark (Nielsen Music Control & IFPI): Cotton-Eyed Joe--Rednex (13th week at #1)

#1 single in Flanders (VRT): Dromen zijn bedrog--Marco Borsato

#1 single in France (SNEP): Can You Feel the Love Tonight--Elton John (5th week at #1)

#1 single in the Netherlands (De Nederlandse Top 40): I Will Survive--Hermes House Band (2nd week at #1)

#1 single in the U.K. (BMRB): Stay Another Day--East 17 (4th week at #1)

U.S.A. Top 10 (Billboard)
1 On Bended Knee--Boyz II Men
2 Here Comes the Hotstepper--Ini Kamoze
3 Another Night--Real McCoy
4 Creep--TLC
5 Always--Bon Jovi
6 I Wanna Be Down--Brandy
7 I'll Make Love to You--Boyz II Men
8 Before I Let You Go--BLACKstreet
9 Tootsee Roll--69 Boyz
10 I'm the Only One--Melissa Etheridge

Singles entering the chart were Sympathy for the Devil by Guns N' Roses (#62); Get Down by Craig Mack (#73); Strong Enough by Sheryl Crow (#81); Don't Say Goodbye Girl by Tevin Campbell (#85); and I Apologize by Anita Baker (#87). Sympathy for the Devil was from the movie Interview with the Vampire (1994).

#1 single in the U.S.A. (Cash Box): On Bended Knee--Boyz II Men (5th week at #1)

Died on this date
Woody Strode, 80. U.S. football player, wrestler, and actor. Mr. Strode was a decathlete and football player at the University of California at Los Angeles in the late 1930s. After serving in World War II, he played with the Los Angeles Rams in 1946 and the Calgary Stampeders from 1948-1950, making the Western Interprovincial Football Union All-Star team at end in each of his first two seasons in Calgary and playing a major role in the Stampeders' 1948 Grey Cup championship. Mr. Strode wrestled professionally from the 1940s until the early 1960s. He began acting in movies in the early 1940s in bit parts, and played major supporting roles in later years in movies such as The Ten Commandments (1956); Spartacus (1960); and The Professionals (1966). He was known for working with director John Ford in such films as Sergeant Rutledge (1960) and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962).

War
In a settlement negotiated primarily by Lieutenant General Sir Michael Rose, United Nations commander in Bosnia, the warring factions in Bosnia signed a cease-fire agreement effective January 1, 1995, under which they were to withdraw from the front line and allow UN peacekeepers to occupy the ground between them.

Russian forces launched a full air and ground attack on Grozny, capital of the rebel province of Chechnya. Although the presidential palace was in flames, Chechen President Dzhokhar Dudayev refused to surrender.

Oddities
This date was skipped altogether in Kiribati as the Phoenix Islands and Line Islands changed time zones from UTC−11:00 to UTC+13:00 and UTC−10:00 to UTC+14:00, respectively.

Football
NFL
NFC Wild Card Playoff
Detroit 12 @ Green Bay 16



AFC Wild Card Playoff
Kansas City 17 @ Miami 27



20 years ago
1999

Died on this date
Elliot Richardson, 79. U.S. politician. Mr. Richardson, a Republican, held various state offices in Massachusetts, and four different cabinet posts in the administrations of U.S. Presidents Richard Nixon (1970-1973) and Gerald Ford (1975-1977). He was best known for his time as U.S. Attorney General under President Richard Nixon (May-October 1973), and he resigned rather than carry out Mr. Nixon's order to fire Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox on October 20, 1973, in what became known as the "Saturday Night Massacre." Mr. Richardson served as U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom from 1975-1976. He died from a cerebral hemorrhage.

Abominations
The U.S. government handed control of the Panama Canal (as well all the adjacent land to the canal known as the Panama Canal Zone) to Panama, in compliance with the signing of the 1977 Torrijos–Carter Treaties.

Terrorism
The Indian Airlines Flight 814 hijacking ended after seven days with the release of 190 survivors at Kandahar Airport, Afghanistan.

Politics and government
Boris Yeltsin resigned as President of Russia and appointed his Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin as his successor. In a televised New Year’s Eve address, Mr. Yeltsin said it was time for "new politicians...new personalities...and new smart, strong, and energetic people."

Crime
A painting by Paul Cezanne titled Auvers-sur-Oise was stolen from the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, England.

Hockey
NHL
Anaheim 4 @ Dallas 5

Brett Hull of the Stars became the 12th player in NHL history to score 600 career goals when he scored twice in their victory over the Mighty Ducks at Reunion Arena. He reached the milestone in his 900th game; only Wayne Gretzky (718th game) and Mario Lemieux (719th) got there faster.

Football
NCAA
Sun Bowl
Oregon 24 Minnesota 20

10 years ago
2009

Space
Both a blue moon and a lunar eclipse occurred.