February 6, 2020

Born on this date
Happy Birthday, Bob Powless and Brian Poluk!

1,960 years ago
60

World events
This is the earliest date for which the day of the week is known; a graffito in Pompeii identified this day as a dies Solis (Sunday). In modern reckoning, this date would have been a Wednesday.

325 years ago
1695

Died on this date
Ahmed II, 52. Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, 1691-1695. Ahmed II, a son of Sultan Ibrahim, succeeded his older brother Suleiman II on the throne, after being imprisoned for nearly 43 years during the reigns of his brothers. He implemented tax reforms, but after Grand Vizier Köprülüzade Fazıl Mustafa Pasha, upon whom he had greatly relied, was killed in battle in 1691, the Ottoman Empire suffered a string of military defeats against Habsburg forces. Sultan Ahmed II died 25 days after the surrender of the fortress of Gyula, which had been the centre of an Ottoman sanjak (subprovince) in what is now Hungary since 1566. Ahmed II was succeeded by his younger brother Mustafa II.

280 years ago
1740

Died on this date
Clement XII, 87. Roman Catholic Pope, 1730-1740. Clement XII, born Lorenzo Corsini, was a lawyer before entering the clergy. He was Archbishop of Nicomedia, nuncio to Vienna, and papal treasurer before succeeding Benedict XIII as pope. Pope Clement XII presided over a surplus in papal finances, oversaw building projects, and issued the first public papal condemnation of Freemasonry. He died of complications from gout, and was succeeded by Benedict XIV.

200 years ago
1820

Born on this date
Thomas C. Durant. U.S. railroad tycoon. Dr. Durant was a physician in the 1840s before becoming a railroad executive. He was successful at raising money for the Mississippi and Missouri Railroad (M&M) in the 1850s, and was vice president of the Union Pacific Railroad (UP) in 1869 when it met with the Central Pacific railroad at Promontory Summit in Utah Territory. Dr. Durant created the financial structure which led to the Crédit Mobilier scandal, which hurt the careers of several politicians and nearly bankrupted Union Pacific. Dr. Durant died on October 5, 1885 at the age of 65.

Africana
The first 86 Negro immigrants sponsored by the American Colonization Society departed New York to start a settlement in what is now Liberia.

180 years ago
1840

Diplomacy
The Treaty of Waitangi was signed between representatives of the British Crown and various Māori chiefs from the North Island of New Zealand, establishing a British Governor of New Zealand, recognizing Māori ownership of their lands and other properties, and giving the Māori the rights of British subjects.

175 years ago
1845

Born on this date
Isidor Straus. Bavarian-born U.S. businessman and politician. Mr. Straus moved to the United States with his family in 1854, living in Georgia before moving to New York City after the Civil War. He opened a crockery department in the basement of Macy's department store, and he and his brother Nathan gained full ownership of R.H. Macy & Co. by 1896. Isidor Straus was a Democrat who represented New York's 15th District in the U.S. House of Representatives (1894-1895), but declined U.S. President Grover Cleveland's offer of the position of Postmaster General. Mr. Straus was 67 when he and his wife Ida travelled on the maiden voyage of RMS Titanic; he refused to board a lifeboat while the ship was sinking, and Mrs. Straus refused to leave him. They died when the Titanic sank at 2:20 A.M. on April 15, 1912.

140 years ago
1880

Died on this date
Edward Barron Chandler, 79. Canadian politician. Mr. Chandler, a native of Amherst, Nova Scotia, moved to Dorchester, New Brunswick to study law, and entered politics when he was elected to the N.B. legislature as an opponent of responsible government. He became a member of the New Brunswick Legislative Council in 1836, and was a cabinet minister from 1848-1854. Mr. Chandler was a delegate from New Brunswick to the conferences that led to Canadian confederation, and was a Father of Confederation. He was a cautious supporter of the federal Conservative government of Prime Minister John A. Macdonald, and refused a Senate appointment, but accepted the appointment as Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick in 1878. Mr. Chandler died in office, and was succeeded by Robert Duncan Wilmot.

130 years ago
1890

Born on this date
James McGirr. Australian politician. Mr. McGirr, a member of the Labour Party, was Premier of New South Wales from 1947-1952. He died of a heart attack on October 27, 1957 at the age of 67.

125 years ago
1895

Born on this date
Babe Ruth. U.S. baseball player. George Herman Ruth began his major league career with the Boston Red Sox (1914-1919) as a pitcher before moving to the outfield, where he became the most famous player in baseball history, especially after joining the New York Yankees. He played with the Yankees from 1920-1934 and the Boston Braves in 1935, with more hitting records than can be mentioned here. Less well known are his pitching achievements, which included leading the American League in winning percentage (.750) in 1915; in shutouts (9) and earned run average (1.75) in 1916; and setting a record for consecutive scoreless innings in World Series competition that stood for 45 years. The Sultan of Swat died of cancer on August 16, 1948 at the age of 53.

Bob La Follette, Jr.. U.S. politician. Mr. La Follette, the son of prominent politician Bob La Follette, Sr., represented Wisconsin in the United States Senate from 1925-1947. He was first elected as a Republican to fill the vacancy caused by the death of his father, and supported the cause of organized labour. Mr. La Follette and his brother Philip formed the Wisconsin Progressive Party in 1934, and he won re-election as a Progressive in 1934 and 1940. He was one of the Senate's leading isolationists, and helped found the America First Committee in 1940. When the Wisconsin Progressive Party dissolved, Mr. La Follette returned to the Republican Party, but was narrowly defeated in his state's Senate primary that year by Joseph McCarthy, who went on to win election to the Senate. He then warned of Communist infiltration into the U.S. government, and acted as an economic consultant to large corporations. Mr. La Follette committed suicide by shooting himself on February 24, 1953, 18 days after his 58th birthday. Some believed that he feared exposure by Sen. McCarthy's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations regarding Communists who had served on Sen. La Follette's subcommittee staff, while others believed that his suicide was the result of anxiety and depression that had long plagued him.

120 years ago
1900

Law
The Permanent Court of Arbitration, an international arbitration court at The Hague, was created when the Senate of the Netherlands ratified an 1899 peace conference decree.

110 years ago
1910

Born on this date
Carlos Marcello. Tunisian-born U.S. gangster. Mr. Marcello, born Calogero Minacori, emigrated with his family to Louisiana when he was an infant. He turned to crime at an early age, and ended up as boss of the New Orleans crime family from 1947 until the early 1980s. He served six months in prison in the mid-1960s for assaulting a Federal Bureau of Investigation agent, and served 6 1/2 years after being convicted in a bribery scandal in the '80s. Mr. Marcello has been accused of involvement in the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy in 1963, but this blogger is skeptical of those accusations. Mr. Marcello died on March 3, 1993, 25 days after his 83rd birthday.

90 years ago
1930

Track and field
A six-stage snowshoe race between Québec City and Montreal ended at the Montreal Forum, as Édouard Fabre took the victory after 34 hours and 18 minutes. The race followed the marathon between Montreal and Lewsiton, Maine that promoter Armand Vincent had organized in 1929. Mr. Fabre was a previous winner of the Boston Marathon and San Francisco Marathon.

80 years ago
1940

War
The Allied War Council met in Paris to discuss a French offer to aid Finland in her war against the U.S.S.R. Japanese spokesmen claimed penetration of the province of Ningsia in northwestern China.

Diplomacy
Delegates from 10 League of Nations members met in The Hague to establish a committee for the study of economic and social problems.

British envoy Sir Stafford Cripps left Chungking for Sinkiang on his inspection tour of the Chinese war zone.

75 years ago
1945

War
U.S. forces in Germany reached to within less than 3 miles of the largest of five dams controlling the level of the Roer River. Russian troops in Germany broke across the Oder River an established a 50-mile-long bridgehead on the western bank. Japanese forces in China took the abandoned U.S. air base sites at Namyung in the province of Kwangtung and Kanhsien in the province of Kiangsi.

70 years ago
1950

On television tonight
Lights Out, on NBC
Tonight's episode: Dead Pigeon, starring Joel Ashley, John Boruff, Philip Coolidge, and Florida Friebus

Diplomacy
U.S. High Commissioner John McCloy warned West Germany that the United States would use all its power and influence to head off a revival of Nazism. He told the Germans not to expect a revived Army or Air Force.

Defense
London Intelligence Digest editor Kenneth de Courcy claimed that the U.S.S.R. had already built three hydrogen bombs and exploded one.

The U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff ended a six-day visit to Japan and Okinawa after conferring with General Douglas MacArthur on defense needs in the Pacific region.

The U.S. Defense Department announced the test-firing of the Navy's "Mighty Mouse," the first successful air-to-air rocket.

Politics and government
The Republican Party issued its policy statement for the 1950 U.S. congressional elections under the slogan "Liberty Against Socialism."

Academia
U.S. Army Secretary Gordon Gray accepted the appointment as President of the University of North Carolina.

Labour
The coal mine strike in the United States widened to included 400,000 miners as U.S. President Harry Truman invoked the Taft-Hartley Act and appointed a three-man fact-finding commission to investigate the dispute.

60 years ago
1960

Hit parade
#1 single in Australia (Kent Music Report): Boom Boom Baby--Crash Craddock

#1 single in Italy: Romantica--Tony Dallara

#1 single in West Germany (Media Control): Marina--Rocco Granata and the International Quintet (6th week at #1)

#1 single in the U.K. (Record Mirror): Why--Anthony Newley (3rd week at #1)

U.S.A. Top 10 (Cash Box)
1 Running Bear--Johnny Preston (3rd week at #1)
2 Teen Angel--Mark Dinning
3 El Paso--Marty Robbins
4 Where or When--Dion and the Belmonts
5 You Got What it Takes--Marv Johnson
6 Why--Frankie Avalon
7 Go, Jimmy, Go--Jimmy Clanton
8 Handy Man--Jimmy Jones
9 Pretty Blue Eyes--Steve Lawrence
10 Lonely Blue Boy--Conway Twitty

Singles entering the chart were Lady Luck by Lloyd Price and his Orchestra (#70); Outside My Window by the Fleetwoods (#79); Beatnik Fly by Johnny and the Hurricanes (#81); Too Pooped to Pop "Casey" by Chuck Berry (#87); Bad Boy by Marty Wilde (#89); (Baby) Hully Gully by the Olympics (#92); I Know What God Is by Perry Como (#93); You're My Baby by Sarah Vaughan (#95); I was Such a Fool (To Fall in Love with You) by the Flamingos (#97); How Much by the Skyliners (#98); I'll Take Care of You by Bobby Bland (#100); Angela Jones by Johnny Ferguson (also #100); and On the Beach by Frank Chacksfield and his Orchestra (also #100). I Know What God Is was the other side of Delaware, charting at #57.

Vancouver's Top 10 (CFUN)
1 Lucky Devil--Carl Dobkins, Jr.
2 Teen Angel--Mark Dinning
3 Running Bear--Johnny Preston
4 Little Bitty Girl--Bobby Rydell
5 Terry--Leigh Bell
6 Handy Man--Jimmy Jones
7 Lonely Blue Boy--Conway Twitty
8 What in the World's Come Over You--Jack Scott
9 Go, Jimmy, Go--Jimmy Clanton
10 Down by the Station--The Four Preps

Singles entering the chart were Outside My Window by the Fleetwoods (#23); What a Night by the Chippendales (#28); (There was a) Tall Oak Tree by Dorsey Burnette (#29); Werewolf by the Frantics (#31); Wild Cat by Gene Vincent (#34); Was There Once by Mike Minor (#36); and Lady Luck by Lloyd Price and his Orchestra (#38).

Died on this date
Jesse Belvin, 27. U.S. musician. Mr. Belvin was a singer, songwriter, and pianist who co-wrote Earth Angel a major rhythm and blues hit for the Penguins in 1954. As was the common practice in those days, the song was covered by a white artist, in this case the Crew Cuts, whose version hit #3 on the Billboard U.S. pop chart. Mr. Belvin sang with the Shields, whose great doo-wop ballad You Cheated hit #20 on the pop chart in 1958. He then embarked on a career as a solo artist, reaching #31 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the spring of 1959 with Guess Who. His promising career was shortened when he and his wife were killed in a car accident near Hope, Arkansas, just after he had appeared in Little Rock on a bill with Sam Cooke, Jackie Wilson, and Marv Johnson. It was the first concert in Little Rock to take place before an integrated audience, and the show was interrupted by white yutes shouting racial slurs. Mr. Belvin’s records are among the most sought among aficionados of 1950s-1960s male rhythm and blues singers.

50 years ago
1970

Hit parade
#1 single in New Zealand (RIANZ): Nature--The Fourmyula

#1 single in Ireland (IRMA): Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)--Edison Lighthouse

South Africa's Top 10 (Springbok Radio)
1 Pretty Belinda--Chris Andrews (3rd week at #1)
2 Theresa--Dave Mills
3 Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head--B.J. Thomas
4 Jam Up Jelly Tight--Tommy Roe
5 (Call Me) Number One--The Tremeloes
6 Without Love (There is Nothing)--Tom Jones
7 Don't Cry Daddy--Elvis Presley
8 All I Have to Do is Dream--Bobbie Gentry and Glen Campbell
9 He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother--The Hollies
10 The Liquidator--The Harry J. All Stars

Singles entering the chart were Good Old Rock 'n Roll by the Dave Clark Five (#18); Someday We'll Be Together by Diana Ross and the Supremes (#19); and Yester-Me, Yester-You, Yesterday by Stevie Wonder (#20).

Vancouver's Top 10 (CKLG)
1 Venus--The Shocking Blue (2nd week at #1)
2 Arizona--Mark Lindsay
3 Fancy--Bobbie Gentry
4 Walkin' in the Rain--Jay and the Americans
5 No Time--The Guess Who
6 Thank You Falletinme Be Mice Elf Agin--Sly & the Family Stone
7 He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother--Hollies
8 I'm Tired--Savoy Brown
9 Walk a Mile in My Shoes--Joe South and the Believers
10 I Want You Back--The Jackson 5

Singles entering the chart were Bridge Over Troubled Water by Simon & Garfunkel (#21); Down in the Alley by Ronnie Hawkins (#25); I Must Have Been Blind by the Collectors (#27); Spirit in the Sky by Norman Greenbaum (#28); Ma Belle Amie by the Tee Set (#29); and Rainy Night in Georgia by Brook Benton (#30).

Edmonton's Top 10 (CJCA)
1 Fancy--Bobbie Gentry (2nd week at #1)
2 Arizona--Mark Lindsay
3 Jennifer Tomkins--Street People
4 Venus--The Shocking Blue
5 Groovy Grubworm--Harlow Wilcox and the Oakies
6 No Time--The Guess Who
7 Walk a Mile in My Shoes--Joe South and the Believers
8 When Julie Comes Around--The Cuff Links
9 Ma Belle Amie--The Tee Set
10 Honey Come Back--Glen Campbell

On television tonight
Hallmark Hall of Fame, on NBC
Tonight's episode: A Storm in Summer, starring Peter Ustinov and N'gai Dixon

This drama was directed by Buzz Kulik and written by Rod Serling.

War
In a television interview, former U.S. President Lyndon Johnson said that enemy exhaustion after the Tet offensive of early 1968, and not domestic political considerations, led him to offer a partial halt to the bombing of North Vietnam. He added that the 206,000 additional American troops that U.S. military leaders had requested at that time reflected not a sense of weakness but rather a fear of Communist-inspired trouble elsewhere. Meanwhile, both sides observed a cease-fire for Tet in 1970: the U.S. and South Vietnamese for 24 hours, the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong for four days. U.S. and S.V. troops stayed on guard against any repetition of the 1968 offensive. Each side accused the other of cease-fire violations, and the U.S. command posted 113 "enemy initiated" incidents, with a death toll of 3 Americans, 5 South Vietnamese, and 137 Communists.

Egyptian frogmen sank an Israeli naval vessel at Elath. 15 hours later, Israeli jets retaliated by bombing and sinking an Egyptian minelayer in the Red Sea. Both sides unleashed air strikes the same day.

Politics and government
U.S. Senator Fred Harris of Oklahoma, explaining that he wanted to free himself from the "restraints" of the job, resigned as chairman of the Democratic National Committee. Sen. Harris, who had held the job for about a year, told aides that he was weary of factional sniping from both right and left.

Economics and finance
The European Economic Community’s first commercial treaty with an eastern European country was concluded with Yugoslavia. The three-year trade agreement could help Yugoslavia expand exports to the west, but the significance of the accord was seen as at least partly political.

The U.S. Labor Department reported that unemployment had risen in January by 0.5% to 3.9%, which was still below the rates from 1957-1966.

40 years ago
1980

World events
Iranian President Abolhassan Bani-Sadr denounced the student militants holding hostages at the U.S. embassy in Tehran as "self-centred children" who were behaving like a "government within a government." The Revolutionary Council ordered the state broadcasting system to stop granting the militants automatic air time to publicize their views.

Science
Elwyn Simmons of Duke University announced the discovery of the oldest primate fossils in the chain of alleged human hereditary lineage found to date. In the previous three years, more than two dozen skeletal fossils of monkey-like primates the size of a house cat had been found at the edge of the Sahara Desert in Egypt. The primate, alleged to be an ancestor of both apes and humans, was named Aegyptopithecus. It was thought to have roamed Africa 30 million years ago and to have had a complex social structure defended by males.

30 years ago
1990

On television tonight
The Wonder Years, on ABC
Tonight's episode: She, My Friend and I

Died on this date
Jimmy Van Heusen, 77. U.S. songwriter. Mr. Van Heusen, born Edward Babcock, was kwown for writing the music to Sammy Cahn's lyrics for songs in musical shows and movies. He was nominated for 14 Academy Awards, and won four times for Best Original Song: Swinging on a Star (Going My Way) (1944); All the Way (The Joker is Wild) (1957); High Hopes (A Hole in the Head) (1959); and Call Me Irresponsible (Papa's Delicate Condition) (1963). He also won an Emmy Award with Mr. Cahn for the song Love and Marriage, written for the Producers' Showcase presentation of Our Town.

Politics and government
U.S.S.R. Premier Nikolai Ryzhkov, responding to calls for a multiparty political system, said that a multiparty system, in effect, already existed. Hard-liners on the Communist Party Central Committee warned that any moves toward a multiparty system or free enterprise could lead to the disintegration of the Soviet Union.

Business
A Canadian federal competition tribunal approved the $5-billion Imperial Oil takeover of Texaco Canada.

Hockey
NHL
New Jersey 2 Edmonton 2

Brett Hull of the Dallas Stars became the first son of a 50-goal scorer to score 50 goals in a season himself. Brett scored his 50th goal of the season at Chicago Stadium against the Blackhawks, the team with which Mr. Hull's father Bobby had posted five 50-goal seasons.

25 years ago
1995

Hit parade
#1 single in Italy: All I Need is Love--Indiana (4th week at #1)

#1 single in Spain (PROMUSICAE): Zombie--Ororo (5th week at #1)

#1 single in Norway (VG-lista): Cotton Eye Joe--Rednex (18th week at #1)

#1 single in Germany (Media Control): Zombie--The Cranberries

Canada's Top 10 (RPM)
1 Insensitive--Jann Arden (2nd week at #1)
2 On Bended Knee--Boyz II Men
3 Bang and Blame--R.E.M.
4 Take a Bow--Madonna
5 You Don't Know How it Feels--Tom Petty
6 The Sweetest Days--Vanessa Williams
7 When I Come Around--Green Day
8 You Wreck Me--Tom Petty
9 Strong Enough--Sheryl Crow
10 Buddy Holly--Weezer

Singles entering the chart were You Lose You Gain by John Bottomley (#69); Cotton Eye Joe by Rednex (#71); Little Bitty Pretty One by Huey Lewis (#84); Kiss from a Rose by Seal (#85); Have a Little Faith by Joe Cocker (#86); I Know by Dionne Farris (#87); I Belong to You by Toni Braxton (#88); Far Out by Cinger (#90); Always and Forever by Luther Vandross (#91); Prime of Life by Neil Young (#92); Look What Love Has Done by Patty Smyth (#95); and High Head Blues by the Black Crowes (#96).

Terrorism
Siddig Ibrahim Siddig Ali, one of 12 men accused in the plot to bomb he United Nations building in New York and kill political leaders, changed his plea to guilty and said that fellow defendant Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman had played a principal role in the conspiracy. Mr. Siddig Ali told the court that in addition to the UN, the conspirators planned to bomb a Federal Bureau of Investigation office, a bridge, and two tunnels. Mr. Siddig Ali said that he had been Sheik Abdel Rahman's bodyguard and translator.

Politics and government
The United States House of Representatives voted 294-134 in favour of a bill giving the President a line-item veto--the authority to reject individual spending items in legislation before signing the overall bill. Under the House bill, a presidential rejection of a specific spending item would hold unless both houses of Congress overturned his veto within 20 days by two-thirds majorities. The line-item veto was available to governors of 43 states, and had been endorsed in 1994 by most Republican Party candidates in the congressional elections.

Economics and finance
U.S. President Bill Clinton submitted to Congress his budget for the fiscal year of 1996. As he had promised previously, the budget contained tax breaks for the middle class, and spending cuts totalling $144 billion over five years. The budget put spending at $1.61 trillion and projected continuing annual deficits of close to $200 billion through 2005.

Hockey
NHL
Toronto 7 San Jose 3

20 years ago
2000

Died on this date
Phil Walters, 83. U.S. auto racing driver. Mr. Walters was a glider pilot with the U.S. Army Air Forces in World War II and lost half a lung and a kidney as the result of wounds, but was able to become a sports car and endurance race driver. He won numerous sports car races from 1950-1955, and won the Grand Prix, 12 Hours of Sebring in 1953, while finishing third in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1953. Mr. Walters was preparing to join Enzo Ferrari's Formula One team in 1955, but witness the crash at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in which 85 spectators were killed, and immediately quit the sport. He later became an accomplished sailboat racer.

Terrorism
Hijackers seized control of an Afghan passenger jet with more than 180 aboard, soon after takeoff from Kabul. Some hostages were released during landings in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, and 9 were released when the plane landed in Moscow.

War
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that Russian troops had captured the last rebel stronghold in the Chechen capital of Grozny. The city was little more than a pile of rubble after a six-month bombardment that left no home intact and much of the city booby-trapped or littered with unexploded Russian shells. The separatist Chechen Republic of Ichkeria government was forced into exile.

Politics and government
Tarja Halonen became the first woman to be elected President of Finland, taking 51.6% of the vote. Voter turnout was 80.2%.

U.S. First Lady Hillary Clinton announced that she would be seeking a seat in the United States Senate in New York in 2000. Speaking in Purchase, New York, she said she was a "new Democrat" who supported a significant role for government, but with financial responsibility. She said, "I may be new to the neighbourhood, but I’m not new to your concerns." New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani went on five Sunday morning television programs to promote his candidacy.

Quebec Premier Lucien Bouchard said that Quebec must solve its health care crisis before calling another sovereignty referendum.

Protest
Police raided a university in Mexico City and arrested 632 striking students, ending a nine-month occupation.

Football
NFL
Pro Bowl @ Aloha Stadium, Honolulu
NFC 51 AFC 31

Randy Moss of the Minnesota Vikings caught 9 passes for 212 yards and a touchdown for the National Football Conference, and was named the game’s Most Valuable Player. Mr. Moss’s touchdown came on a 25-yard pass from Steve Beuerlein. Mike Alstott rushed for three NFC touchdowns, while other NFC touchdowns were scored by Aeneas Williams (62-yard interception return) and Derrick Brooks (20-yard interception return). Jason Hanson converted all 6 and added 3 field goals. Jimmy Smith of the Jacksonville Jaguars caught 3 touchdown passes for the American Football Conference: 5 yards from Mark Brunell, 21 yards from Peyton Manning, and 52 yards from Mr. Manning. Tony Gonzalez scored the other AFC touchdown on a 10-yard pass from Rich Gannon. Olindo Mare converted all 3 and added a field goal. Tony Dungy of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers was the winning head coach over Tom Coughlin of Jacksonville.