January 9, 2020

870 years ago
1150

Died on this date
Xizong, 30. Emperor of China, 1135-1150. Xizong, born Hela, was the third Emperor of the Jin dynasty in northern China. He succeeded his younger brother Taizong on the throne, and launched several military campaigns against the Southern Song dynasty in southern China, while reforming political institutions along the lines of the Han Chinese culture, which he admired. Emperor Xizong was assassinated by his chancellor, Digunai, and other court officials in a coup d'état, and was succeeded as Emperor by Digunai.

275 years ago
1745

Born on this date
Caleb Strong. U.S. politician. Mr. Strong, a Federalist, assisted in drafting the Massachusetts State Constitution in 1779, served in the Massachusetts State Senate before representing the state in the U.S. Senate (1789-1796, and serving as Governor of Massachusetts (1800-1807, 1812-1816). He came out of retirement for his second term as Governor, and opposed the War of 1812. Mr. Strong died on November 7, 1819 at the age of 74.

260 years ago
1760

War
Ahmad Shah Durrani's forces defeated the Marathas in the Battle of Barari Ghat in India.

220 years ago
1800

Died on this date
Jean-Étienne Championnet, 37. French military officer. General of Division Championnet led a Republican French division in many important battles during the French Revolutionary Wars, and was commander-in-chief of the Army of Rome (1798) and of the Army of Italy (1799). He died of typhus.

160 years ago
1860

Born on this date
Frank Olin. U.S. baseball player and industrialist. Mr. Olin was an outfielder with four major league teams (1884-1885), batting .316 with 1 home run in 49 games. He founded the ammunition firm that eventually became the Olin Corporation in East Alton, Illinois in 1892. Mr. Olin acquired the Winchester Repeating Arms Company in 1931 and retired in 1944, shortly after combining his companies into Olin Industries. He died on May 20, 1951 at the age of 91.

150 years ago
1870

Born on this date
Joseph Strauss. U.S. engineer. Mr. Strauss revolutionized the design of bascule bridges. His most notable achievement was as chief engineer of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, which opened in 1937. Mr. Strauss died on May 16, 1938 at the age of 68.

130 years ago
1890

Born on this date
Kurt Tucholsky. German journalist. Mr. Tucholsky was a satirist, songwriter, and poet who used various pseudonyms. He described himself as a "left-wing democrat" and a pacifist, and warned against the threat of Nazism. When the Nazis came to power in Germany, Mr. Tulchovsky was among the first writers and intellectuals whose writings were banned and citizenship revoked. Mr. Tucholsky moved to Paris in 1924 and to Sweden in 1929, where he remained until his death on December 21, 1935 from an overdose of sleeping pills, 19 days before his 46th birthday. He was plagued by chronic illness, and his death was ruled a suicide, but the verdict is disputed by some.

Karel Čapek. Czech author and playwright. Mr. Čapek wrote fiction and non-fiction, in which he expressed his opposition to both Fascism and Communism. He was best known for his science fiction, especially the play R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots) (1921), which introduced the word "robot." Mr. Čapek suffered from fragile health, and died of pneumonia on December 25, 1938 at the age of 48.

120 years ago
1900

Born on this date
Richard Halliburton. U.S. journalist. Mr. Halliburton was a world traveller who wrote about his adventures in books such as The Royal Road to Romance (1925); The Glorious Adventure (1927); and New Worlds to Conquer (1929). On March 4, 1939, Mr. Halliburton, with six other men, set sail from Hong Kong aboard the Chinese junk Sea Dragon, bound for San Francisco. The Sea Dragon was last heard from near the International Date Line on March 23; Mr. Halliburton was legally declared dead on October 5, 1939 at the age of 39.

100 years ago
1920

Born on this date
Hakim Said. Pakistani medical researcher and politician. Dr. Said was an advocate of Eastern medicine, and was Vice-Chancellor of Hamdard University from 1948 until his death on October 17, 1998 at the age of 78. He was Governor of Sindh from 1993-1994.

Clive Dunn. U.K. actor. Mr. Dunn played doddering old men in various films and television programs, and was best known for playing Lance Corporal Jones in the television comedy series Dad's Army (1968-1977). He recorded the song Grandad, which spent three weeks at #1 in the British singles chart early in 1971. Mr. Dunn died on November 6, 2012 at the age of 92.

90 years ago
1930

Died on this date
Edward Bok, 66. Dutch-born U.S. journalist. Mr. Bok moved to Brooklyn, New York with his family at the age of 6. He was editor of Ladies' Home Journal (1889-1919), and was credited with coining the term "living room" to decribe the room in a house formerly known as the "parlor" or "drawing room." He was awarded the 1921 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography for The Americanization of Edward Bok: The Autobiography of a Dutch Boy Fifty Years Later (1920).

80 years ago
1940

War
U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt revealed his peace objectives to leaders of the Baptist, Lutheran, and Seventh Day Adventist churches at a meeting in the White House, after their pledge of secrecy. The Soviet 44th Division retreated east of Suomussalmi, Finland after heavy losses, and temperatures of -31 F. stopped the fighting on all fronts. Japan and China issued rival claims of victory in the fighting in the northern part of the Chinese province of Kwangtung.

Scandal
Howard C. Hopson, who, as owner of Associated Gas and Electric, had made the company into the third-largest producer of electricity in the United States in the 1930s, was convicted of 17 counts of mail fraud and two of income tax evasion, and was sentenced to five years in prison.

Economics and finance
Chase National Bank President Winthrop Aldrich urged a free gold market to ease the economic impact on the world of the current flow of gold to the United States.

Negotiations for trade agreements between the U.S.A. and Argentina and Uruguay were reported to have broken down.

Politics and government
U.S. Senator Gerald Nye (Republican--North Dakota) declared his support for Sen. Arthur Vandenberg (Michigan) for the Republican Party nomination for President of the United States in the November 1940 election.

Labour
The U.S. Federal Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled that the National Labor Relations Board must provide equal protection to a worker whether he was a member of a labour union or not.

The U.S. Federal Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago ruled that Inland Steel Corporation did not have to recognize the Congress of Industrial Organizations' Steel Workers Organizing Committee as sole bargaining agent.

Sport
Rower Joe Burk was named winner of the James E. Sullivan Memorial Trophy for performance and sportsmanship as the outstanding amateur athlete in the United States for 1939.

75 years ago
1945

Died on this date
William Grenfell, 1st Baron Desborough, 89. U.K. politician and sportsman. Mr. Grenfell sat in the House of Commons as a Liberal from 1880-1886 and 1892-1893, and as a Conservative from 1900-1905, when he was made a peer, sitting in the House of Lords for the remainder of his life. He won a silver medal in the team épée fencing event in the Intercalated Games in Athens in 1906, and was an executive with various amateur sports organizations.

Jüri Uluots, 54. Prime Minister of Estonia, 1939-1940; Prime Minister in the duties of the President, 1940-1945. Mr. Uluots, a lawyer and law professor by trade, sat in the Riigikogu (Parliament) from 1920-1926 and 1929-1932. He was Speaker of the Riigivolikogu (lower chamber) from 1938 until taking office as Prime Minister. When Soviet forces invaded and occupied Estonia in 1940 and deported President Konstantin Päts, Mr. Uluots assumed the office of Prime Minister in the duties of the President. He opposed both German and Soviet occupation of Estonia, and proclaimed a new government in September 1944. Soviet forces soon moved back in to occupy the country, and much of the government fled into exile in Stockholm. Mr. Uluots died four days before his 55th birthday, shortly after his arrival in Stockholm, and was succeeded as Prime Minister in the duties of the President by August Rei.

Shigekazu Shimazaki, 36. Japanese military officer. Commander Shimazaki, a career officer in the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service, was in the second wave of planes that attacked the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on December 7, 1941. He was killed in action near Taiwan as a staff officer of the IJN 3rd Air Fleet, and was posthumously promoted to Rear Admiral.

War
The German bulge in Belgium was further compressed along its perimeter as U.S. forces moved close to La Roche. Retreating German forces in the extreme eastern end of the Italian front halted and dug in on the southern bank of the Reno River. Soviet troops drove to within 3 1/2 miles of the Czech supply and transportation centre of Komarno near the Hungarian border. U.S. troops invaded Luzon, largest of the Philippine Islands, at Lingayen Gulf, establishing five beachheads, and capturing the town of Lingayen and the adjoining airstrip. Australian and New Zealand troops relieved U.S. soldiers on bypassed islands in the Southwest Pacific Ocean to mop up Japanese remnants. Chinese troops on the coast of the province of Kwangtung captured Yamshien and Limchow from the Japanese.

Economics and finance
U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in his budget message to Congress, set expenditures for the 1946 fiscal year at $83 billion, almost $17 billion less than for 1945.

Business
In Chicago, U.S. Federal Court Judge Philip Sullivan gave Montgomery Ward & Co. seven days in which to file its answer in the U.S. government's suit to establish its legality of its seizure of the firm's property.

70 years ago
1950

On television tonight
Lights Out, on NBC
Tonight's episode: Judgment Reversed, starring King Calder, Nancy Coleman, and Humphrey Davis

War
A Chinese Nationalist gunboat shelled and damaged the U.S. freighter Flying Arrow as it attempted to enter Shanghai in defiance of the Nationalist blockade of Communist-held ports.

Diplomacy
Denmark recognized the People's Republic of China.

U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman John Kee (Democrat--West Virginia) urged that the United States reestablish diplomatic relations with Spain.

Crime
U.S. Federal Judge Sylvester Ryan ruled in New York that Soviet engineer Valentin Gubitchev, a United Nations employee, did not possess diplomatic immunity, and must stand trial on espionage charges in connection with the case of former U.S. government employee Judith Coplon.

Economics and finance
U.S. President Harry Truman presented Congress with a proposed budget of $42.4 billion for fiscal 1951, urging federal deficit spending for the third successive year. 71% of the proposed expenditures were devoted to military spending, stepped-up atomic research, and repayment of war debts.

The United Nations Economic Survey Mission for the Middle East issued its final report, recommending specific work-relief projects for Arab refugees in Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon.

Business
Cole Brothers Circus, the wworld's second-largest, was sold by Hoosier Circus Corporation to Otis Circus Corporation in Chicago.

Labour
The governing board of the International Labor Organization set up a fact-finding and conciliation commission to handle complaints involving freedom of trade unions.

10,000 Italian workers marched on factories closed by employers in a labour dispute in Modene, resulting in clashes with police that caused five deaths.

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 (5th week at #1)

#1 single in Italy: Oh! Carol--Neil Sedaka (2nd week at #1)

#1 single in West Germany (Media Control): Marina--Rocco Granata and the International Quintet (2nd week at #1)

#1 single in the U.K. (Record Mirror): What Do You Want to Make Those Eyes at Me For?--Emile Ford and the Checkmates

U.S.A. Top 10 (Cash Box)
1 Why--Frankie Avalon (2nd week at #1)
2 El Paso--Marty Robbins
3 Way Down Yonder in New Orleans--Freddie Cannon
4 The Big Hurt--Miss Toni Fisher
5 Among My Souvenirs--Connie Francis
6 It's Time to Cry--Paul Anka
7 Running Bear--Johnny Preston
8 Heartaches by the Number--Guy Mitchell
9 Oh! Carol--Neil Sedaka
10 Pretty Blue Eyes--Steve Lawrence

Singles entering the chart were No Love Have I by Webb Pierce (#91); Heart of Gold by the Twins (#95); Swingin' on a Rainbow by Frankie Avalon (#96); Tell Her for Me by Adam Wade (#97); The Happy Muleteer by Ivo Robic (#99); and Mary Don't You Weep by Stonewall Jackson (#100).

Vancouver's Top 10 (CFUN)
1 Running Bear--Johnny Preston
2 Hound Dog Man--Fabian
3 Why--Frankie Avalon
4 Pretty Blue Eyes--Steve Lawrence
5 This Friendly World--Fabian
6 Way Down Yonder in New Orleans--Freddie Cannon
7 Lonely Blue Boy--Conway Twitty
8 It's Time to Cry--Paul Anka
9 Go, Jimmy, Go--Jimmy Clanton
10 Sandy--Larry Hall

Singles entering the chart were Shimmy, Shimmy, Ko-Ko-Bop by Little Anthony and the Imperials (#25); Bulldog by the Fireballs (#32); Star Spangled Heaven by Conway Twitty (#35); and Clap Your Hands by the Beau-Marks (#39). Star Spangled Heaven was the B-side of Little Blue Boy.

Energy
Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser opened construction of the Aswan High Dam by detonating 10 tons of dynamite to demolish 20 tons of granite on the east bank of the Nile River.



50 years ago
1970

Hit parade
#1 single in Ireland (IRMA): Two Little Boys--Rolf Harris (3rd week at #1)

South Africa's Top 10 (Springbok Radio)
1 (Call Me) Number One--The Tremeloes
2 He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother--The Hollies
3 Down on the Corner--Creedence Clearwater Revival
4 Pretty Belinda--Chris Andrews
5 Suspicious Minds--Elvis Presley
6 Theresa--Dave Mills
7 Jam Up Jelly Tight--Tommy Roe
8 Cry to Me--The Staccatos
9 Tracy--The Cuff Links
10 Baby it's You--Smith

Singles entering the chart were Leaving on a Jet Plane by Peter, Paul and Mary (#17); Fairytales by John Edmond (#19); and The Liquidator by the Harry J. All Stars (#20).

Vancouver's Top 10 (CKLG)
1 Jam Up Jelly Tight--Tommy Roe
2 Don't Cry Daddy--Elvis Presley
3 That's Where I Went Wrong--The Poppy Family
4 Holly Holy--Neil Diamond
5 Midnight Cowboy--Ferrante & Teicher
6 No Time--The Guess Who
7 Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head--B.J. Thomas
8 She--Tommy James and the Shondells
9 Early in the Morning--Vanity Fare
10 Whole Lotta Love--Led Zeppelin

Singles entering the chart were Thank You Falletinme Be Mice Elf Agin by Sly & the Family Stone (#26); Walkin' in the Rain by Jay and the Americans (#28); I Want You Back by the Jackson 5 (#29); and We were Happy by Jayson Hoover (#30).

Edmonton's Top 10 (CJCA)
1 Don't Cry Daddy--Elvis Presley
2 Something/Come Together--The Beatles
3 One Tin Soldier--The Original Caste
4 Leaving on a Jet Plane--Peter, Paul and Mary
5 Cold Turkey--Plastic Ono Band
6 Fancy--Bobbie Gentry
7 Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head--B.J. Thomas
8 Midnight Cowboy--Ferrante & Teicher
9 Up on Cripple Creek--The Band
10 Arizona--Mark Lindsay

Space
The U.S.S.R. launched the satellite Cosmos 318.

War
Evidence that South Korean soldiers in South Vietnam murdered "hundreds" of civilians was found by interviewers for a private research project, according to its former director, A. Terry Rambo. Mr. Rambo also stated that an American army officer had ordered him to stop making inquiries and to leave the allegations out of his report.

Diplomacy
U.S. Vice President Spiro Agnew continued his Asian tour with a visit to Malaysia, placing a wreath at the war memorial, visiting Yamtuan Besar (King) of Negeri Sembilan Tuanku Ja'afar ibni Almarhum Tuanku Abdul Rahman, and playing golf with Malaysian Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Al-Haj.



Defense
France acknowledged that her arms deal with Libya announced two days earlier included an agreement to sell 50 Mirage jet fighters. The French government stated that resale of the jets to third parties--Arab countries directly involved in hostilities with Israel, for instance--was prohibited.

Officials in Washington confirmed that Nationalist China (Taiwan) would be provided with a squadron of U.S. F-104 Starfighter fighter-bombers from "excess stocks." The U.S. Congress had been embroiled in a controversy over an amendment to foreign aid legislation granting Taiwan a squadron on the newer Phantom planes.

Disasters
A nursing home fire in Marietta, Ohio killed 27 people.

All 50 people aboard a ferry were lost when it sank in shark-infested Guayaquil Gulf, Ecuador.

40 years ago
1980

World events
U.S. President Jimmy Carter warned the American public that it could take months to gain the release of the hostages from the U.S. embassy in Iran. "There is no legitimate political bargaining leverage that can be exerted on" the Iranian militants, Mr. Carter warned, and "there is no entity there with whom one can negotiate."

Defense
U.S. Defense Secretary Harold Brown concluded several days of talks with Chinese military officials.

Hockey
NHL
Edmonton 2 @ Quebec 3

30 years ago
1990

Died on this date
Spud Chandler, 82. U.S. baseball pitcher. Spurgeon Ferdinand Chandler played with the New York Yankees from 1937-1947, compiling a record of 109-43 with an earned run average of 2.84. His winning percentage of .717 is the major league career record for pitchers with at least 100 wins. Mr. Chandler's best season was 1943, when he was 20-4 with an ERA of 1.64, won two games in the World Series, and was named the American League's Most Valuable Player. He was a member of seven teams that won American League pennants, and six World Series championships.

Personal
This blogger began a two-month job with Musee Heritage Museum in St. Albert, Alberta.

Scandal
A judge in Ottawa acquitted Canadian Member of Parliament Lorne Nystrom (NDP--Yorkton-Melville) of shoplifting; Mr. Nystrom explained that he had put some contact lens cleaning discs in his pocket while distracted.

Economics and finance
The parliament of Armenia voted to integrate the economy of the region of Nagorno-Karabakh into the economy of Armenia.

25 years ago
1995

Hit parade
#1 single in Italy: Song for You--Radio Dee Jay for Christmas

#1 single in Spain (PROMUSICAE): Zombie--Ororo (2nd week at #1)

#1 single in Norway (VG-lista): Cotton Eye Joe--Rednex (14th week at #1)

#1 single in Germany (Media Control): Cotton Eye Joe--Rednex (10th week at #1)

#1 single in Canada (RPM): On Bended Knee--Boyz II Men

At the movies
This blogger attended a preview screening of Higher Learning, written, directed, and co-produced by John Singleton, and starring Omar Epps, Kristy Swanson, and Ice Cube.





Died on this date
Souphanouvong, 85. 1st President of Laos, 1975-1991. Prince Souphanouvong, the "Red Prince," represented the Communist political faction in Laos, serving as figurehead leader of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party.

Peter Cook, 57. U.K. comedian and actor. Mr. Cook was a member of the troupe Beyond the Fringe with Dudley Moore, Jonathan Miller, and Alan Bennett in the 1950s and early 1960s, and teamed up with Mr. Moore to star in the satirical comedy sketch television program Not Only...But Also (1965-1970). His most notable movies, also with Mr. Moore, were The Wrong Box (1966) and Bedazzled (1967). Years of heavy drinking led to his death from a gastrointestinal hemorrhage.

Scandal
U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Newt Gingrich (Republican--Georgia) asked for the resignation of Christina Jeffrey, a supporter whom he had named as House historian, after it was revealed that she had once criticized a school program on the Holocaust for not including the "Nazi point of view" or that of the Ku Klux Klan.

20 years ago
2000

Died on this date
Nigel Tranter, 90. U.K. historian and author. Mr. Tranter, a lifelong resident of Scotland, wrote more than 130 books, the best-known of which was the five-volume history The Fortified House in Scotland (1962-1970). He wrote historical novels about Scotland, and wrote Western novels under the pseudonym Nye Tredgold.

Marguerite Churchill, 89. U.S. actress. Miss Churchill appeared in plays on Broadway in New York in the 1920s and '30s, and in two dozen movies from 1929-1936. She was best known as the leading lady in the Western The Big Trail (1930), John Wayne's first starring role. She died two weeks after her 89th birthday.

Football
NFL
NFC Wild Card Playoff
Dallas 10 @ Minnesota 27



AFC Wild Card Playoff
Miami 20 @ Seattle 17



10 years ago
2010

Abominations
In Nag Hammadi, Egypt, Muslim gunmen opened fire on a crowd of Coptic Christians leaving church after attending Christmas mass, killing eight of them, as well as one Muslim bystander.

Football
NFL
AFC Wild Card Playoff
New York Jets 24 @ Cincinnati 14



NFC Wild Card Playoff
Philadelphia 14 @ Dallas 34