February 17, 2020

520 years ago
1500

War
Troops led by King Johannes II of Denmark and his cousin Duke Frederik unsuccessfully attempted to subdue the peasantry of Dithmarschen, Denmark in the Battle of Hemmingstedt in what is now Germany.

420 years ago
1600

Died on this date
Giordano Bruno, 51. Italian philosopher and alchemist. Mr. Bruno accepted the cosmology of Nicolaus Copernicus, but believed that the universe was infinite, and that there were many earths. He believed that it was impossible to postulate absolute truth or any limit to the progress of knowledge. Mr. Bruno was convicted by the Roman Inquisition for heresy for denying numerous Roman Catholic doctrines, and was burned at the stake in Rome's Campo de' Fiori.

200 years ago
1820

Born on this date
Henri Vieuxtemps. Belgian musician and composer. Mr. Vieuxtemps was a prominent classical concert violinist from 1829 through the 1870s. His dozens of compositions consisted mainly of works for violin; he was best known for his seven violin concertos. Mr. Vieuxtemps suffered a couple of serious strokes in the late 1870s, and died on June 6, 1881 at the age of 61.

190 years ago
1830

Disasters
The Royal Gazette reported that due to the failure of the wheat crop over the past two years, the settlements of Madawaska, New Brunswick were now facing starvation. N.B. Surveyor General Thomas Baillie had been instructed to make arrangements for temporary relief.

170 years ago
1850

Born on this date
Anton Urspruch. German composer. Mr. Urspruch was a composer of the late Romantic period who taught piano and composition in Frankfurt. His works included a symphony, a piano concerto, and other works for piano. Mr. Urspruch died on January 11, 1907 at the age of 56.

130 years ago
1890

Died on this date
Christopher Latham Sholes, 71. U.S. journalist, politician, and inventor. Mr. Sholes published the Southport Telegraph--later known as the Kenosha Telegraph-- in Wisconsin. He served in the Wisconsin State Senate as a Democrat (1848-1849) and as a Republican (1856-1857), and in the Wisconsin State Assembly as a member of the Free Soil Party (1852-1853). He co-invented a numbering machine in 1866, and co- invented the typewriter in 1868, as well as the QWERTY keyboard. Mr. Sholes died three days after his 71st birthday, after a long battle with tuberculosis.

120 years go
1900

Born on this date
Ruth Clifford. U.S. actress. Miss Clifford appeared in movies, television programs, and commercials in a career spanning more than 50 years from the 1910s through the 1960s. Her biggest roles came in silent movies, including The Kaiser, the Beast of Berlin (1918); The Face on the Bar-Room Floor (1923); and The Dramatic Life of Abraham Lincoln (1924). Miss Clifford died on November 30, 1998 at the age of 98.

110 years ago
1910

Marc Lawrence. U.S. actor. Mr. Lawrence, born Max Goldsmith, was a character actor who specialized in playing underworld figures in movies in a career that spanned seven decades. He died on November 28, 2005 at the age of 95.

100 years ago
1920

Born on this date
Happy Birthday Annie Glenn! Mrs. Glenn, born Anna Castor in Columbus, Ohio, married future astronaut and politician John Glenn on April 6, 1943. She used her experience with stuttering to advocate on behalf of people with speech and other disabilities. Mr. and Mrs. Glenn were married for 73 years until his death on December 8, 2016 at the age of 95.

Curt Swan. U.S. artist. Mr. Swan worked as an illustrator with DC Comics from 1945-1985, and was best known for drawing Superman. He died on June 17, 1996 at the age of 76.

Ivo Caprino. Norwegian director and screenwriter. Mr. Caprino was known for his stop-motion puppet films, especially Flåklypa Grand Prix (Pinchcliffe Grand Prix) (1975). He died of cancer on February 8, 2001, nine days before his 81st birthday.

90 years ago
1930

Politics and government
Henri-Edgar Lavigueur, Mayor of Quebec City from 1916-1920, defeated incumbent Joseph-Oscar Auger in the Quebec mayoral election.

80 years ago
1940

Theatre
The Unconquered, an adaptation by Ayn Rand of her novel We the Living (1936), closed at the Biltmore Theatre on Broadway in New York after just six performances. It was produced and directed by George Abbott, and starred Helen Craig, John Emery, and Dean Jagger.

War
Sweden refused Finland's request for military aid in her war against the U.S.S.R. Chinese military authorities reported the rout of Japanese troops at Nanning. Afghanistan's ambassador to Turkey was recalled to Kabul for military discussions dealing with the possible spread of war to western Asia.

Diplomacy
U.S. Undersecretary of State Sumner Welles departed New York for visits to Italy, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom to assess the present state of the European war and prospects for peace.

Politics and government
A Gallup Poll indicated that 52% of the American people expected Franklin D. Roosevelt to seek a third term as President of the United States in 1940, and 60% expected him to win the November election.

Track and field
At the Melrose Games in New York, world records were set by John Blozis in the shot put and Allan Tolmich in the 60-yard high hurdles.

75 years ago
1945

Hit parade
#1 single in the U.S.A. (Billboard): Rum and Coca-Cola--The Andrews Sisters with Vic Schoen and his Orchestra (Best Seller--2nd week at #1; Juke Box--2nd week at #1); Don't Fence Me In--Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters with Vic Schoen and his Orchestra (Airplay--4th week at #1)

War
British and Canadian troops divided the German lines in the west by cutting the Goch-Calcar highway. Soviet troops breached the Germans' Queis River defenses, reaching Rauscha, 60 miles northeast of Dresden. Wernher von Braun and other German rocket scientists evacuated the V-2 rocket site at Peenemunde before advancing Soviet troops arrived. Two days of assaults on the Tokyo area by U.S. planes resulted in the loss of 177 Japanese planes and the sinking of 14 ships, while the Americans lost 49 planes.

Diplomacy
The ambassadors of Peru and Ecuador signed an agreement ending the 120-year-old border dispute between the countries.

Labour
The World Trade Union Congress in London ended after an 11-day session that failed to establish a world labour organization to replace the International Federation of Trade Unions.

South Dakota Governor M.Q. Sharpe (Republican) signed a bill ending the closed shop in that state.

70 years ago
1950

Radio
The Hooperatings poll in the United States showed the most popular programs to be The Jack Benny Program; Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts; Radio Theater; Bob Hope; My Friend Irma; Fibber McGee and Molly; and Amos & Andy.

Defense
The U.S. Defense Department reported current U.S. armed strength at 1,512,900 men, a decrease of 38,000 since December 31, 1949.

Politics and government
Wilhelm Zaisser was appointed East German Minister of State Security, in charge of the country's secret police force Stasi.

Medicine
The Wendell Willkie Memorial Fund for Research in Heart Disease was established in New York.

Disasters
The worst U.S. rail accident in the United States since 1946 took 30 lives and injured 105 when two Long Island Railroad commuter trains collided head-on in Rockville Center, New York.

50 years ago
1970

Hit parade
#1 single in Sweden (Kvällstoppen): Monia--Peter Holm (2nd week at #1)

#1 single in Switzerland (Swiss Hitparade): Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye--Steam (3rd week at #1)

Died on this date
S.Y. Agnon, 81. Austro-Hungarian-born Israeli author. Shmuel Yosef "Shai" Agnon, born Shmuel Yosef Halevi Czaczkes in Polish Galicia, moved to Ottoman Palestine in 1908 and to Germany in 1913 before moving to Jerusalem permanently in 1924. He was a major figure in modern Hebrew literature, writing novels and short stories. Mr. Agnon was awarded a share of he 1966 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his profoundly characteristic narrative art with motifs from the life of the Jewish people."

Alfred Newman, 69. U.S. composer and conductor. Mr. Newman conducted on Broadway before moving to Hollywood and becoming one of the most famous and most-honoured composers in the history of film music. He was nominated for 45 Academy Awards, winning 9. Mr. Newman's brothers Emil and Lionel were also film composers, as were Alfred's sons David and Thomas, nephew Randy Newman, and grandnephew Joey Newman. Mr. Newman's daughter Maria is a classical composer who has written collaborative scores for vintage silent films, and his granddaughter Jaclyn Newman Dorn is a cinematic music editor. Alfred Newman died of emphysema a month before his 70th birthday, and shortly after completing his score for Airport (1970).

Politics and government
Leon Panetta, a strong advocate of firm desegregation policies, resigned as chief of the Civil Rights Office of the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare because of what he called "political pressure."

Education
A U.S. federal judge in Detroit ordered the community of Pontiac to integrate its schools on all levels by the fall of 1970.

40 years ago
1980

Hit parade
#1 single in New Zealand (RIANZ): Another Brick in the Wall (Part II)--Pink Floyd (2nd week at #1)

#1 single in Switzerland: Another Brick in the Wall (Part II)--Pink Floyd (3rd week at #1)

Adventure
Polish mountaineers Krzysztof Wielicki and Leszek Cichy completed the first winter ascent of Mount Everest, as part of an expedition led by Andrzej Zawada.

Scandal
The New York Times revealed--after obtaining the report of the Rowe Task Force of the U.S. Justice Department--that the Federal Bureau of Investigation had known about and covered up involvement in violent attacks on Negroes and civil rights activists by Gary Rowe, its chief paid informer inside the Ku Klux Klan in the early 1960s. The 302-page report also claimed that FBI director J. Edgar Hoover had twice blocked prosecution of four Ku Klux Klansmen identified by FBI agents as the bombers who had killed four Negro girls in the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. There was no reported evidence that Mr. Rowe was involved in the bombing. The two times that Mr. Hoover foiled attempts to pass information on the bombing to officials in the Justice Department, he had said that "the chance of prosecution in state or Federal Court is very remote." One of the Klansmen, "Dynamite Bob" Chambliss, was convicted of murder in 1977 on less direct evidence that was available to the jury than had been available to Mr. Hoover in 1964 when he halted the prosecution. The task force concluded that the church bombing case did not reach a grand jury until 1977 because Mr. Hoover’s Justice Department superiors were never given the full account of what the FBI knew about the case. The report also said that the FBI did not investigate information about killings that Mr. Rowe had been involved in between 1960 and 1965, because Mr. Rowe was providing good intelligence.

Politics and government
George Bush won the Republican Party primary in Puerto Rico for the nomination for President of the United States with 61% of the vote and 14 delegates to 37% for U.S. Senator Howard Baker. Mr. Bush had campaigned for statehood for the island, which currently held commonwealth status.

Hockey
NHL
Edmonton 5 St. Louis 5

30 years ago
1990

Hit parade
#1 single in Australia (Australian Music Report): Janie's Got a Gun--Aerosmith

#1 single in Italy (FIMI): Un' Estate Italiana--Edoardo Bennato; Gianna Nannini (2nd week at #1)

#1 single in Spain (PROMUSICAE): All Around the World Lisa Stansfield (2nd week at #1)

#1 single in Flanders (Ultratop 50): Daar Gaat Ze--Clouseau (2nd week at #1)

#1 single in France (SNEP): Les Valses de Vienne--François Feldman (4th week at #1)

#1 single in the U.K. (CIN): Nothing Compares 2 U--Sinéad O'Connor (3rd week at #1)

Netherlands Top 10 (De Nederlandse Top 40)
1 Nothing Compares 2 U--Sinéad O'Connor
2 Get Up! (Before the Night is Over)--Technotronic
3 Me So Horny--The 2 Live Crew
4 Get a Life--Soul II Soul
5 Get Into It--Tony Scott
6 I Wish it Would Rain Down--Phil Collins
7 Got to Get--Rob 'n' Raz featuring Leila K
8 Words--The Christians
9 Sacrifice--Elton John
10 Whatcha' Gonna Do with My Lovin'--Inner City

Singles entering the chart were Daar Gaat Ze by Clouseau (#15); I'll Be Loving You (Forever) by New Kids on the Block (#25); Got to Have Your Love by Mantronix (#27); Esta Loca by Latino Party (#29); Opposites Attract by Paula Abdul (#35); and Zeg Me Dat Het Niet Zo Is by the Frank Boeijen Groep (#37).

U.S.A. Top 10 (Billboard)
1 Opposites Attract--Paula Abdul (Duet with the Wild Pair) (2nd week at #1)
2 Two to Make it Right--Seduction
3 Escapade--Janet Jackson
4 Dangerous--Roxette
5 Janie's Got a Gun--Aerosmith
6 What Kind of Man Would I Be?--Chicago
7 All or Nothing--Milli Vanilli
8 Downtown Train--Rod Stewart
9 Tell Me Why--Expose
10 We Can't Go Wrong--The Cover Girls

Singles entering the chart were I'll Be Your Everything by Tommy Page (#51); Blue Sky Mine by Midnight Oil (#77); I'll Be There by Joyce "Fenderella" Irby (#78); The Heart of the Matter by Don Henley (#90); Anytime by the McAuley Schenker Group (#88); Got to Get by Leila K with Rob 'N' Raz (#89); Sending All My Love by Linear (#92); Living in Oblivion by Anything Box (#95); and True Blue Love by Lou Gramm (#96).

U.S.A. Top 10 (Cash Box)
1 Opposites Attract--Paula Abdul (Duet with the Wild Pair) (2nd week at #1)
2 Two to Make it Right--Seduction
3 Janie's Got a Gun--Aerosmith
4 How am I Supposed to Live Without You--Michael Bolton
5 Dangerous--Roxette
6 What Kind of Man Would I Be?--Chicago
7 I Remember You--Skid Row
8 Peace in Our Time--Eddie Money
9 Tell Me Why--Expose
10 Downtown Train--Rod Stewart

Singles entering the chart were Heart of Stone by Cher (#69); I'll Be Your Everything by Tommy Page (#72); Blue Sky Mine by Midnight Oil (#78); Got to Get by Leila K with Rob ’N’ Raz (#85); You're the Voice by John Farnham (#86); I'm Not Satisfied by Fine Young Cannibals (#87); Brother, Don't You Walk Away by the Hooters (#92); If You Leave Me Now by Jaya (#93); and Wild Women Do by Natalie Cole (#95). Wild Women Do was from the movie Pretty Woman (1990).

Canada's Top 10 (RPM)
1 Downtown Train--Rod Stewart (2nd week at #1)
2 Janie's Got a Gun--Aerosmith
3 Peace in Our Time--Eddie Money
4 Opposites Attract--Paula Abdul (Duet with the Wild Pair)
5 Just Between You and Me--Lou Gramm
6 Free Fallin'--Tom Petty
7 Escapade--Janet Jackson
8 What Kind of Man Would I Be?--Chicago
9 Dangerous--Roxette
10 All or Nothing--Milli Vanilli

Singles entering the chart were Let Your Backbone Slide by Maestro Fresh-Wes (#74); Catch Me in the Act by Paradox (#76); A Face in the Crowd by Tom Petty (#78); Anytime by the McAuley Schenker Group (#80); Dirty Deeds by Joan Jett (#84); I'm Not Satisfied by Fine Young Cannibals (#87); Far Far Cry by Jon Anderson (#89); C'mon and Get My Love by D-Mob (#91); and Love is a Dangerous Weapon by the Works (#93).

Died on this date
Hap Day, 88. Canadian hockey player and coach. Clarence Henry Day was a left wing, and later, a defenceman with the Toronto St. Patricks and Maple Leafs (1924-37) and New York Americans (1937-38), scoring 86 goals and 116 assists in 586 regular season games, and 4 goals and 7 assists in 51 playoff games. He played with the 1931-32 Stanley Cup championship team, and coached the Maple Leafs from 1940-50, winning Stanley Cups in 1942; 1945; and three straight from 1947-49. Mr. Day was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1961.

Erik Rhodes, 84. U.S. actor. Mr. Rhodes, born Ernest Sharpe, appeared in several Broadway musicals, but was best known for his roles in movies such as The Gay Divorcee (1934); Top Hat (1935); Charlie Chan in Paris (1935); and The Mysterious Mr. Moto (1938). He died a week after his 84th birthday.

Scandal
In a closed courtroom in Los Angeles, former U.S. President Ronald Reagan concluded two days of videotaped testimony, amounting to eight hours, in the trial of former national security adviser John Poindexter, who was on trial for his involvement in the Iran-Contra scandal.

Hockey
NHL
New Jersey 4 @ Toronto 5

25 years ago
1995

Hit parade
#1 single in Sweden (Topplistan): Tears Don't Lie--Mark 'Oh (2nd week at #1)

#1 single in Ireland (IRMA): Think Twice--Celine Dion (5th week at #1)

At the movies
Mr. Payback: An Interactive Movie, starring Billy Warlock and Christopher Lloyd, opened in theatres.

War
Hostilities in the three-week Cenepa War between Peru and Ecuador ended with a cease-fire brokered by the United Nations.

Crime
A jury in Nassau County, New York convicted Colin Ferguson, an immigrant from Jamaica, of killing 6 passengers and wounding 19 others with a handgun on a commuter train in December 1993.

Economics and finance
The United States Labor Department reported that the trade deficit in 1994 was $108.1 billion, 42% higher than the 1993 figure and the largest for a calendar year since 1988.

20 years ago
2000

Business
New consumer laws to protect consumers from price-gouging by Air Canada were introduced.

10 years ago
2010

Died on this date
Kathryn Grayson, 88. U.S. singer and actress. Miss Grayson, born Zelma Kathryn Elisabeth Hedrick, was a coloratura soprano who appeared in movies such as Anchors Aweigh (1945); Show Boat (1951); and Kiss Me Kate (1953). She later worked in theatre--including a 16-month run in the national U.S. tour of Camelot (1962-1964)--and opera. Miss Grayson died in her sleep, eight days after her 88th birthday.