January 23, 2020

450 years ago
1570

Died on this date
James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray, 38 (?). Regent of Scotland, 1567-1570. The Earl of Moray was the illegitimate son of King James V and the half-brother of Mary, Queen of Scots. He was regent for his half-nephew King James VI, who acceded to the throne upon Mary's death. James Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh, a supporter of Mary, shot the Earl of Moray from a window as the Earl was passing in a cavalcade. It was the first recorded instance of an assassination by shooting of a head of government.

225 years ago
1795

War
After an extraordinary charge across the frozen Zuiderzee River, the French cavalry captured 14 Dutch ships and 850 guns, in a rare occurrence of a battle between ships and cavalry.

220 years ago
1800

Died on this date
Edward Rutledge, 50. U.S. politician. Mr. Rutledge, a Federalist, was a delegate from South Carolina to the Continental Congress (1774-1776), and at 26 was the youngest signer of the Declaration of Independence. He represented Charleston in the S.C. House of Representatives (1776-1778, 1783-1796) and Senate (1796-1798), and was Governor of South Carolina from 1798 until his death. He was suffering from gout, but some contemporary accounts said that Mr. Rutledge died of apoplexy upon hearing the news of the death of former U.S. President George Washington, who had died on December 14, 1799. Mr. Rutledge was succeeded as Governor of South Carolina by Lieutenant Governor John Drayton.

200 years ago
1820

Born on this date
Alexander Serov. Russian composer and critic. Mr. Serov, a lawyer by trade, was one of Russia's most important music critics of the 1850s and '60s. He was known for composing operas, particularly Judith (1863). Mr. Serov died of a heart attack on February 1, 1871, nine days after his 51st birthday.

Died on this date
Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, 52. U.K. royal family member. Prince Edward was the fourth son and fifth child of King George III, and the father of Queen Victoria. He rose to the rank of major-general in the British Army, and lived in British North America from 1791-1800, serving as commander-in-chief of British forces in the Maritime provinces. Prince Edward was the first member of the royal family to live in North America for more than a short visit, and, in 1794, the first prince to visit the United States after independence. In 1792 he was credited with being the first person to use the term "Canadians" to describe both English and French settlers in Upper and Lower Canada. Prince Edward supported the union of the Canadas, and has been called the "Father of the Canadian Crown." As Duke of Kent and Strathearn and Earl of Dublin, Prince Edward served as Governor of Gibraltar from 1802 until his death from pneumonia, just six days before the death of his father.

160 years ago
1860

Academia
The Charter establishing the University of New Brunswick (formerly King’s College) was officially enacted.

150 years ago
1870

Abominations
U.S. cavalrymen in Montana killed 173 Piegan Blackfeet Indians, mostly women and children, in what became known as the Marias Massacre.

125 years ago
1895

Technology
Romaine Callender, an inventor from Brantford, Ontario, demonstrated his automatic telephone in New York City.

120 years ago
1900

War
The Battle of Spion Kop began between the forces of the South African Republic and the Orange Free State and British forcest.

110 years ago
1910

Born on this date
Django Reinhardt. Belgian musician. Mr. Reinhardt, who was of Romani (Gypsy) ancestry, was a pioneering jazz guitarist, and is regarded as one of the greatest guitarists in history. His compositions included Minor Swing; Daphne; Belleville; Djangology; Swing '42; and Nuages. He died on May 16, 1953 at the age of 43, the day after suffering a brain hemorrhage.

100 years ago
1920

Born on this date
Fred Morrison. U.S. businessman. Mr. Morrison began tossing a popcorn can lid with his future wife Lu in 1937, but soon learned that cake pans were easier to toss. This led to Mr. Morrison designing a flying disc in 1946, which he called the Whirlo-Way; it was manufactured in 1948 as the Flyin-Saucer, but sold poorly. In 1955, He and Lu designed the Pluto Platter; they sold the rights to the Wham-O toy company in 1957, which soon renamed it the Frisbee. Mr. Morrison died on February 9, 2010, 17 days after his 90th birthday.

Diplomacy
The Netherlands refused to surrender the exiled Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany to the Allies.

80 years ago
1940

War
Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek accused Japan of planning the conquest of Malaya and the Philippines.

Diplomacy
A conference opened at Tsingtao, China between Wang Ching-wei--projected leader of the Japanese-sponsored government in central China--and Japanese representatives.

Defense
U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed a three-man interdepartmental commission chaired by Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau to coordinate the purchase of military supplies in the United States by foreign nations.

Politics and government
Ignace Jan Paderewski was chosen President of the Polish National Council-in-exile in Paris.

Joseph E. Davies resigned as U.S. Ambassador to Belgium to become a special assistant to U.S. Secretary of State Cordell Hull.

Economics and finance
A British-French purchasing board was created with headquarters in New York City.

75 years ago
1945

War
U.S. troops captured St. Vith, Belgium as the German salient in the Ardennes was compressed to a 5-mile strip. German Admiral Karl Dönitz launched Operation Hannibal, the evacuation by sea of German troops from Courland, East Prussia, and the Polish Corridor. Soviet unites reached the Oder River in Silesia along a 37-mile front in the vicinity of Breslau. The capture of Tost and Bischofstal to the south cut off the Silesian coal basin.

Diplomacy
U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt secretly left Newport News, Virginia aboard the USS Quincy to attend the Yalta Conference in Crimea with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.

Guatemala severed diplomatic relations with Spain on the ground that the Spanish Falange was a threat to the Americas.

70 years ago
1950

On television tonight
Lights Out, on NBC
Tonight's episode: The Devil to Pay, starring Arnold Moss and Alfreda Wallace

Died on this date
Vasil Kolarov, 72. Prime Minister of Bulgaria, 1949-1950. Mr. Kolarov, a longtime member of the Bulgarian Communist Party, was Chairman of the Provisional Presidency of Bulgaria (1946-1947) and Minister of Foreign Affairs before taking office as Prime Minister following the death of Georgi Dimitrov. Mr. Kolarov died in office, and was succeeded as Prime Minister by deputy Prime Minister Valko Chervenkov.

World events
The Israeli Knesset passed a resolution proclaiming Jerusalem to be the capital of Israel.

Politics and government
Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, a longtime follower of the late Mohandas Gandhi, was unanimously elected Prime Minister of India by the Constituent Assembly.

Two days after the conviction of former U.S. State Department official Alger Hiss on two counts of perjury, Senator Homer Capehart (Republican--Indiana) demanded that President Harry Truman "apologize" to the nation for calling the Hiss inquiry a "red herring," and asked that Secretary of State Dean Acheson and Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter resign for supporting Mr. Hiss.

Economics and finance
In a special message to Congress, U.S. President Harry Truman proposed a cut in excise taxes, but demanded that the lost revenue be restored by closing tax loopholes and raising corporation, estate, and gift taxes.

60 years ago
1960

Hit parade
#1 single in Australia (Kent Music Report): Joey's Song/Ooh! Look-a-There, Ain't She Pretty?--Bill Haley and his Comets (7th week at #1)

#1 single in Italy: Oh! Carol--Neil Sedaka (3rd week at #1)

#1 single in West Germany (Media Control): Marina--Rocco Granata and the International Quintet (4th week at #1)

#1 single in the U.K. (Record Mirror): Why--Anthony Newley

U.S.A. Top 10 (Cash Box)
1 Running Bear--Johnny Preston
2 Why--Frankie Avalon
3 El Paso--Marty Robbins
4 Way Down Yonder in New Orleans--Freddie Cannon
5 The Big Hurt--Miss Toni Fisher
6 Teen Angel--Mark Dinning
7 Pretty Blue Eyes--Steve Lawrence
8 You Got What it Takes--Marv Johnson
9 Go, Jimmy, Go--Jimmy Clanton
10 It's Time to Cry--Paul Anka

Singles entering the chart were Beyond the Sea by Bobby Darin (#66); (Do the) Mashed Potatoes (Part 1) by Nat Kendrick and the Swans (#82); My Blue Heaven by Bobby Day (#90); Big River by the Buddy Brennan Quartet (#91); Lullabye by the Chevrons (#94); Clap Your Hands (Part 1) by the Wheels with the Teddy Vann Chorus and Orchestra (#96); Am I that Easy to Forget by Debbie Reynolds (#99); Midnite Special by Paul Evans (#100); and My Little Marine by Jamie Horton (also #100).

Vancouver's Top 10 (CFUN)
1 Lucky Devil--Carl Dobkins, Jr.
2 Running Bear--Johnny Preston
3 Lonely Blue Boy--Conway Twitty
4 Pretty Blue Eyes--Steve Lawrence
5 Go, Jimmy, Go--Jimmy Clanton
6 Why--Frankie Avalon
7 It's Time to Cry--Paul Anka
8 Down by the Station--The Four Preps
9 Sandy--Larry Hall
10 Bulldog--The Fireballs

Singles entering the chart were Snake in the Garden by Jerry Howard (#33); Country Boy by Fats Domino (#36); Tracy's Theme by Spencer Ross (#39); Midnite Special by Paul Evans (#40); Bad Boy by Marty Wilde (#43); Beyond the Sea by Bobby Darin (#44); (There was a) Tall Oak Tree by Dorsey Burnette (#47); Wild Cat by Gene Vincent (#49); and Little Bitty Girl by Bobby Rydell (#50). Clap Your Hands by the Beau-Marks (#48) was a different song from Clap Your Hands (Parts 1 and 2) by the Wheels with the Teddy Vann Chorus and Orchestra.

Exploration
The U.S. Navy bathyscaphe USS Trieste, with Lieutenant Don Walsh and Jacques Piccard aboard, broke a depth record by descending to 10,911 metres (35,797 feet) in the Pacific Ocean, thus achieving the goal of Project Nekton.



Transportation
Metropolitan Boulevard opened in Montreal, linking the city from east to west.

50 years ago
1970

Hit parade
#1 single in New Zealand (RIANZ): And When I Die--Blood, Sweat & Tears (2nd week at #1)

#1 single in Ireland (IRMA): Two Little Boys--Rolf Harris (5th week at #1)

South Africa's Top 10 (Springbok Radio)
1 Pretty Belinda--Chris Andrews
2 (Call Me) Number One--The Tremeloes
3 He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother--The Hollies
4 Theresa--Dave Mills
5 Down on the Corner--Creedence Clearwater Revival
6 Jam Up Jelly Tight--Tommy Roe
7 Suspicious Minds--Elvis Presley
8 Without Love (There is Nothing)--Tom Jones
9 Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head--B.J. Thomas
10 Cry to Me--The Staccatos

The only single entering the chart was Turn on a Dream by the Box Tops (#20).

Vancouver's Top 10 (CKLG)
1 That's Where I Went Wrong--The Poppy Family (2nd week at #1)
2 No Time--The Guess Who
3 Venus--The Shocking Blue
4 Jam Up Jelly Tight--Tommy Roe
5 Let's Work Together--Wilbert Harrison
6 Arizona--Mark Lindsay
7 Don't Cry Daddy--Elvis Presley
8 Midnight Cowboy--Ferrante & Teicher
9 Fancy--Bobbie Gentry
10 I'm Tired--Savoy Brown

Singles entering the chart were Walk a Mile in My Shoes by Joe South and the Believers (#25); Honey Come Back by Glen Campbell (#28); Oh What a Day by the Dells (#29); and Hey There Lonely Girl by Eddie Holman (#30).

Edmonton's Top 10 (CJCA)
1 Don't Cry Daddy--Elvis Presley (3rd week at #1)
2 Fancy--Bobbie Gentry
3 Arizona--Mark Lindsay
4 Cold Turkey--Plastic Ono Band
5 That's Where I Went Wrong--The Poppy Family
6 Whole Lotta Love--Led Zeppelin
7 Up on Cripple Creek--The Band
8 Groovy Grubworm--Harlow Wilcox and the Oakies
9 Venus--The Shocking Blue
10 Leaving on a Jet Plane--Peter, Paul and Mary

Space
At Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, the United States launched TIROS-M, aka ITOS-1, a second-generation weather satellite, carrying television, automatic picture transmission, and scanning radiometers for global cloud data and local readout both day and night.

War
Israel announced that its troops had withdrawn from Shadwan Island, an Egyptian island that guarded the entrance to the Gulf of Suez, after completely neutralizing it as a military installation. A radar base and other equipment--and 62 prisoners--were taken by the Israelis. 70 Egyptians were killed during the 30-hour operation which had begun the previous day.

World events
Human suffering and devastation in the northern area of the territory that was Biafra were reported to be widespread. Relief efforts in the region were said to be slow and inadequate, but Nigerian Army soldiers were reported to be behaving well.

Ivory Coast announced that General Odumegwu Ojukwu, who had led Biafra’s unsuccessful attempt to secede from Nigeria before fleeing the country on January 12, had been granted asylum. It was said that he would refrain from political activities.

Law
Israel’s High Court ruled, by a 5-4 vote, that Lieutenant Commander Benjamin Shalit, an Israeli naval officer, could register his children, whose mother was not Jewish, as Jewish by nationality rather than by religion. According to Jewish practice, a child’s religious affiliation is determined by that of the mother.

Religion
Building on youth, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints chose 93-year-old Joseph Fielding Smith, a grand-nephew of Mormon founder Joseph Smith, to be their new Prophet, Seer, and Revelator. Mr. Smith was the author of 20 books and was considered the church’s leading expert on theology. He succeeded David O. McKay, who had died five days earlier at the age of 96.

40 years ago
1980

Died on this date
Leonard Strong, 71. U.S. actor. Mr. Strong was a character actor in films and television, often playing Oriental characters. He played "The Claw" in three episodes of the television comedy series Get Smart (1965-1968), frequently saying, in response to others calling him "Craw," "Craw! Not Craw! Craw!"

Politics and government
U.S. President Jimmy Carter delivered his annual State of the Union address, saying, "It has never been more clear that the state of our union depends on the state of the world." The crises in Iran and Afghanistan dramatized how "our excessive dependence on foreign oil is a clear and present danger to our nation’s security." President Carter warned that the United States was prepared to go to war if necessary to protect the oil supply routes of the Persian Gulf region; he said he would soon submit legislation providing incentives for electric utilities to convert from oil and natural gas to other fuels, especially coal. In preparation for an emergency, an improved standby program for gasoline rationing would also be proposed. To improve the country’s readiness for international action, Mr. Carter asked Congress to remove "unwarranted restraints" on U.S. intelligence-gathering capabilities, and said that he would seek the authority to resume Selective Service registration to insure that the nation could "meet future mobilization needs rapidly if they arise." Few new domestic goals were outlined in Mr. Carter’s message. "Restraining inflation remains my highest domestic priority," he said. He proposed spending an additional $2 billion over the next two years to provide job training for unemployed young people. He said he would propose extending general revenue-sharing at the current levels for another five years. Mr. Carter said he would also ask Congress to reorganize the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and would press for a "comprehensive program" for safe disposal of nuclear waste.



World events
The U.S.S.R. government newspaper Izvestia accused dissident physicist Andrei Sakharov, who had been sent into exile in Gorky the previous day, of divulging state secrets to foreign diplomats and journalists and slandering the Soviet Union.

30 years ago
1990

On television tonight
The Wonder Years, on ABC
Tonight's episode: The Powers That Be

Died on this date
Allen Collins, 37. U.S. musician. Mr. Collins was a guitarist with the rock groups Lynyrd Skynyrd in the 1970s and the Rossington-Collins Band in the 1980s. He was paralyzed from the waist down in a 1986 car accident that took the life of his girlfriend and resulted in a charge of vehicular manslaughter against Mr. Collins. He died from chronic pneumonia, a result of the paralysis.

War
Three days after Soviet forces had invaded the Azerbaijani capital of Baku, the death toll stood at 93.

Hockey
NHL
New York Rangers 4 Edmonton 3

25 years ago
1995

Hit parade
#1 single in Italy: All I Need is Love--Indiana (2nd week at #1)

#1 single in Spain (PROMUSICAE): Dancing with Tears in My Eyes--Cabballero

#1 single in Norway (VG-lista): Cotton Eye Joe--Rednex (16th week at #1)

#1 single in Germany (Media Control): Tears Don't Lie--Mark 'Oh (2nd week at #1)

Canada's Top 10 (RPM)
1 On Bended Knee--Boyz II Men (3rd week at #1)
2 Insensitive--Jann Arden
3 You Don't Know How it Feels--Tom Petty
4 Take a Bow--Madonna
5 Bang and Blame--R.E.M.
6 Newborn Friend--Seal
7 Always--Bon Jovi
8 The Sweetest Days--Vanessa Williams
9 House of Love--Amy Grant and Vince Gill
10 Greasy Jungle--The Tragically Hip

Singles entering the chart were The Man Who Sold the World by Nirvana (#64); The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead by Crash Test Dummies (#68); Gel by Collective Soul (#72); Bridge by Queensryche (#73); Let Her Cry by Hootie & the Blowfish (#75); Love Spreads by the Stone Roses (#85); O Siem by Susan Aglukark (#90); Practice What You Preach by Barry White (#91); Lost for Words by Pink Floyd (#92); Learn to Be Still by the Eagles (#93); Don't Tell Me by Van Halen (#94); and As I Lay Me Down by Sophie B. Hawkins (#96). The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead was from the movie Dumb and Dumber (1994). Gel was from the movie The Jerky Boys (1995).

Music
This blogger attended an enjoyable concert by Ladysmith Black Mambazo at Myer Horowitz Theatre in Edmonton.

Diplomacy
Quebec Premier Jacques Parizeau began a visit to France, marking the resumption of alternating visits between the Premier of Quebec and Prime Minister of France.

Scandal
Canadian Defence Minister David Collenette disbanded the Canadian Airborne Regiment after some of its soldiers were found to be involved in the death of a Somali youth during a United Nations mission, and revelations of illegal hazing rituals.

Crime
The Ontario Court of Appeal acquitted Guy-Paul Morin of the 1984 sex-slaying of his nine-year-old neighbour Christine Jessop of Queensville, Ontario. The ruling was made on the basis of new DNA evidence.

20 years ago
2000

World events
Gustavo Noboa Bejarano, installed as Ecuador’s President the previous day in a return to civilian rule the day after President Jamil Mahuad Witt had been forced out of office, said that military officers who had taken part in the overthrow of Mr. Mahuad would face criminal charges.

Weather
Northern lights were visible in Edmonton.

Football
NFL
AFC Championship
Tennessee 33 @ Jacksonville 14



NFC Championship
Tampa Bay 6 @ St. Louis 11











10 years ago
2010

Died on this date
Kermit Tyler, 96. U.S. military officer. Lieutenant Colonel Tyler was a first lieutenant in the Army Air Corps serving as the Executive Officer of the 78th Pursuit Squadron, based at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, when Japanese forces attacked on December 7, 1941. When informed of a large flight of aircraft approaching from the north, Lt. Tyler assumed that it was the expected arrival of six B-17 bombers. He was cleared of any wrongdoing by a Naval Board of Inquiry in 1942, as it was held that he had been assigned to the Information Center with little or no training or supervision, and no staff. Lt. Col. Tyler retired from the Air Force in 1961.

Earl Wild, 94. U.S. musician. Mr. Wild was a classical pianist who played at the White House for six consecutive American presidents from Herbert Hoover through Lyndon Johnson. He joined the NBC Symphony Orchestra in 1937, and in 1939 became the first pianist to perform a recital on American television. Mr. Wild was known for his performances and recordings of the works of George Gershwin and Franz Liszt.