March 9, 2020

790 years ago
1230

War
Forces of Emperor Ivan Asen II of Bulgaria defeated those of Theodore Komnenos Doukas, the ruler of Epirus, in the Battle of Klokotnitsa in Bulgaria, enabling the Second Bulgarian Empire to re-emerge as the most powerful state in southeastern Europe.

520 years ago
1500

Exploration
The fleet of Pedro Álvares Cabral left Lisbon for the Indies. The fleet discovered Brazil a month later.

200 years ago
1820

Born on this date
Samuel Blatchford. Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, 1882-1893. Justice Blatchford, the son of politician and diplomat R.M. Blatchford, served on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (1867-1878) and U.S. Circuit Court for the Second Circuit (1878-1882) before being appointed to the Supreme Court by President Chester Arthur, thus becoming the first person to serve at all three levels of the federal judiciary. Justice Blatchford was known as an expert in admiralty law, and authored 430 opinions and 2 dissents while on the Supreme Court. He died on July 7, 1893 at the age of 73, shortly after being stricken with paralysis.

130 years ago
1890

Born on this date
Vyacheslav Molotov. U.S.S.R. politician. Mr. Molotov held various positions with the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, but was best known as the U.S.S.R.'s Foreign Minister from 1939-1949 and 1953-1956. He died on November 8, 1986 at the age of 96.

125 years ago
1895

Died on this date
Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, 59. Austrian journalist and author. Mr. Sacher-Masoch was known for promoting socialism and humanism in fiction and non-fiction, and was known for romantic stories of Galician life. His best-known work was the novella Venus im Pelz (Venus in Furs) (1870), in which he expressed his fantasies about being dominated by women. Mr. Sacher-Masoch spent his later years under psychiatric care, and contemporary Austrian psychiatrist Richard von Krafft-Ebing coined the term "masochism" to describe such fantasies.

Hockey
Stanley Cup
Queen's College 1 @ Montreal Hockey Club 5

Haviland Routh scored 2 goals, with Clarence Mussen, Clarence McKerrow, and Archie Hodgson each scoring a goal, as the 1894 champions defeated Queen's, champions of the Ontario Hockey Association, at Victoria Arena. George McKay scored for Queen's. The Montreal win meant that the Montreal Victorias, who had clinched the 1895 Amateur Hockey Association of Canada championship the previous day, were declared the 1895 Stanley Cup champions, according to a ruling of Stanley Cup trustees.

110 years ago
1910

Born on this date
Samuel Barber. U.S. composer. Mr. Barber was one of the most acclaimed American composers in history, writing numerous orchestral, vocal, piano, and chamber works, as well as several ballets and operas. He won Pulitzer Prizes for his opera Vanessa (1958) and Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (1962). Mr. Barber's other notable works included Adagio for Strings (1936); Violin Concerto (1941); and Knoxville: Summer of 1915 (1947). He died of cancer on January 23, 1981 at the age of 70.

100 years ago
1920

Born on this date
Franjo Mihalić. Yugoslavian runner. Mr. Mihalić was a long-distance runner who won the silver medal in the marathon at the 1956 Summer Olympic Games in Melbourne, and won the Boston Marathon in 1958. He won a gold medal in the individual competition and a bronze medal in team competition at the 1953 International Cross Country Championships in Paris. Mr. Mihalić continued running into his late 70s, and walking long distances into his late 80s. He died on February 14, 2015, 23 days before his 95th birthday.

80 years ago
1940

War
The British Royal Navy light cruiser HMS Dunedin and Royal Canadian Navy destroyer HMCS Assiniboine seized the German merchant ship MV Hannover between Hispaniola and Puerto Rico. The French and British governments asked Norway and Sweden to permit increased Allied aid to be shipped to Finland. U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Key Pittman (Democrat-Nevada) urged a 30-day truce in Europe to permit neutrals to negotiate a peace settlement.

Diplomacy
The U.K. released Italian coal ships on Italy's promise not to send any more ships for German coal.

Swimming
Patty Aspinwall, 13, set a 220-yard breaststroke record of 3:01.1 at Miami Beach, Florida.

75 years ago
1945

War
The U.S. 1st Army captured Bonn. Soviet forces drove from three directions at Danzig and reached to within 9 miles of the port. The 19th British Indian Division drove its way into Mandalay, breaking out of its bridgehead on the east bank of the Irrawaddy River, as Japanese forces put up fierce resistance. U.S. troops in the Philippines drove 12 miles north along the west coast of Luzon, seizing the town of Aringay.

Diplomacy
The ambassadors to the United Kingdom of both Syria and Lebanon filed protests with British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden over the failure to invite their countries to the forthcoming conference in San Francisco for the founding of the United Nations.

A British Foreign Office spokesman said that the U.K. embassy in Bucharest was sheltering former Romanian Prime Minister General Nicolai Radescu.

Americana
The U.S. Census Bureau reported that the population of the South and West had increased by nearly four million between 1940-1944.

Politics and government
North Dakota Governor Fred Aandahl (Republican) named State Senator Milton Young (Republican) to the U.S. Senate seat vacated by the death of John Moses (Democrat).

Environment
The Quebec Legislative Assembly passed a Land Drainage Act, which allowed the practice of draining land already delivered for cultivation, but liable to flood. The act also allowed the expansion of the arable area by the drying up of savannahs and swamps.

Economics and finance
Italian Prime Minister Ivanoe Bonomi and Spurgeon Keeny, chief of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration's mission to Italy, signed an agreement governing the use of $50 million worth of relief to Italy.

U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt told a press conference that a voluntary system was inadequate to supply the manpower needed to carry on war production.

Labour
The U.S. Southern Coal Producers Association petitioned the National War Labor Board to abandon plans for a strike poll of soft coal miners scheduled for March 28.

Boxing
Rocky Graziano (36-6-5), a 6-1 underdog, knocked Billy Arnold (26-2-1) down 3 times as he scored a technical knockout at 1:54 of the 3rd round of a welterweight bout at Madison Square Garden in New York. Among the 14,037 fans in attendance was U.S. Vice President Harry Truman. The careers of the two boxers went in opposite directions after this fight; Mr. Graziano went on to win the world middleweight title in 1947, while Mr. Arnold retired in 1948 at the age of 22 after losing his last five fights.



70 years ago
1950

On television tonight
Escape, on CBS
Tonight’s episode: The Trouble with Grandfather, starring Kathryn Grill and Clock Ryder

Diplomacy
Turkey became the first Muslim nation to recognize Israel.

Australian External Affairs Secretary Percy Spender said that Australia wanted a partnership with the United States as close as the one existing among British Commonwealth nations.

Politics and government
The West German government issued a White Paper on the Saar question, reiterating its demand for a Saar plebiscite to decide whether the region would remain separated from Germany.

Crime
In New York, U.S. Federal Judge Sylvester Ryan sentenced former U.S. Justice Department employee Judith Coplon and U.S.S.R. engineer and former United Nations employee Valentin Gubitchev to 15 years in prison, two days after they were convicted of espionage for the U.S.S.R. Judge Ryan told Mr. Gubitchev that he would suspend his sentence if he would leave the country in two weeks.

Transportation
A British jet-propelled jet automobile, powered by two kerosene turbines, was given its first public demonstration at nearly 90 miles per hour, on an airstrip near Towcester.

Economics and finance
A conference of U.S. ambassadors to South American republics stressed the need for more Point Four-type economic aid to Latin America. The conferees agreed that U.S. investments were concentrated in oil and mining, which had no widespread social effect.

Labour
Congress of Industrial Organizations President Philip Murray rejected United Mine Workers of America President John L. Lewis's proposal for an inter-union "mutual aid pact for common defense" as serving no useful purpose.

50 years ago
1960

On television tonight
The last episode of The Unforeseen, a horror/supernatural dramatic series that was in its second season, was broadcast on CBC.

Medicine
Kidney dialysis specialist Dr. Belding Hibbard Scribner implanted the Scribner shunt--invented by Dr. Scribner, Wayne Quinton, and David Dillard--into patient Clyde Shields for the first time, allowing the patient to receive hemodialysis on a regular basis.

Transportation
Québec Premier Antonio Barrette announced that his Union Nationale government would invest $4 million to build a road that would join the mining operation at Lac Matagami. Matagami Lake Mines promised to inject $ 50 million into the project.

50 years ago
1970

Hit parade
#1 single in Australia (Kent Music Report): Venus--The Shocking Blue

#1 single in Japan (Oricon Singles Chart): Shiroi Chō no Samba--Kayoko Moriyama

#1 single in Spain (PROMUSICAE): Venus--The Shocking Blue (5th week at #1)

On the radio
The Challenge of Space, on Springbok Radio
Tonight’s episode: Prometheus IX is Missing

Sport
The first Arctic Winter Games, including competitors from the Northwest Territories, Yukon, and Alaska, opened in Yellowknife. This blogger was in attendance, and enjoyed the beginning of an entire week off from school for the games. Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau was on hand to open the games, along with Indian Affairs and Northern Development Minister Jean Chretien and Health and Welfare Minister John Munro. The outdoor ceremony took place at Petitot Park, and then the action moved indoors to Gerry Murphy Arena. Mr. Trudeau and Mr. Chretien detested Mr. Munro so much that when they returned to Ottawa, they refused to fly on the same plane as Mr. Munro.

Diplomacy
Because the U.S.A. still regarded the U.K. as the lawful sovereign over Rhodesia, U.S. Secretary of State William Rogers announced that the American consulate general in Salisbury would close, and diplomatic recognition would be withdrawn from Rhodesia, which had declared itself a republic a week earlier.

War
U.S. and South Vietnamese officials in Saigon reported that the pace of North Vietnamese and Viet Cong attacks had slowed drastically, although the enemy appeared to be engaged in a large resupply effort.

The Pathet Lao and Laotian government agreed to an exchange of messages centring on peace proposals.

Terrorism
Two Negro militants were killed in an explosion in a car near Bel Air, Maryland. The Federal Bureau of Investigation later said that the blast was caused by the detonation of a charge of dynamite they were carrying.

Police in Albuquerque found an incendiary bomb under the floor of a Reserve Officers Training Corps building, 15 minutes before the bomb was set to go off.

40 years ago
1980

Hit parade
#1 single in New Zealand (RIANZ): Another Brick in the Wall (Part II)--Pink Floyd (5th week at #1)

#1 single in Switzerland: Another Brick in the Wall (Part II)--Pink Floyd (6th week at #1)

Politics and government
U.S. Senator John Connally of Texas withdrew from the race for the 1980 Republican Party nomination for President of the United States.

Curling
Brier @ Stampede Corral, Calgary
Final
Saskatchewan (Rick Folk) 11 Northern Ontario (Al Hackner) 6

This was Saskatchewan’s first win since Harvey Mazinke had taken the Canadian title in 1973.

Hockey
NHL
Philadelphia 5 Edmonton 3

30 years ago
1990

Politics and government
Newfoundland Premier Clyde Wells confirmed that his province would be rescinding its approval of the Meech Lake constitutional accord. In the speech from the throne opening the new session of the Newfoundland House of Assembly, Premier Wells, through Lieutenant-Governor James McGrath, said he was taking this action because Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and Quebec Premier Robert Bourassa were unwilling to amend the accord, which Mr. Wells said was unacceptable in its present form. He objected to Meech’s granting of special status to Quebec, and a provision that would make Senate reform more difficult. Federal Trade Minister John Crosbie, a fellow Newfoundlander, accused Mr. Wells of "constitutional vandalism," while federal Environment Minister Lucien Bouchard said that Mr. Wells’ position might force Canada to choose "between Newfoundland and Quebec."

Dr. Antonia Novello was sworn in as both the first Hispanic and woman to be U.S. Surgeon General.

Scandal
Former U.S. National Security Council staff member Oliver North, testifying as a prosecution witness at the trial of former national security adviser John Poindexter, sought to resist implicating Adm. Poindexter in a cover-up, and said, "No one told me to lie to Congress." Adm. Poindexter was on trial for his role in the Iran-Contra arms deal of 1986.

Economics and finance
The U.S. Labor Department reported that unemployment stood at 5.3% in February.

25 years ago
1995

Hit parade
#1 single in Finland (Musiikkituottajat – IFPI Finland): Club Bizarre--U96 (3rd week at #1)

Died on this date
Edward Bernays, 103. Austrian-born U.S. publicist. Mr. Bernays, a nephew of psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, has been called "the father of public relations" and one of the most influential Americans of the 20th century. He was born in Vienna, and moved with his family to New York City when he was an infant. Mr. Bernays worked with the U.S. Committee on Public Information's Bureau of Latin-American Affairs during World War I, and then worked as a "public relations counsel" in New York from 1919-1963 on behalf of businesses and governments. His advertising campaigns included the "Torches of Freedom" project in the 1920s to induce women to smoke cigarettes, and work on behalf of the United Fruit Company in the 1950s in connection with the Central Intelligence Agency's overthrow of the Guatemalan government of President Jacobo Arbenz. Mr. Bernays' books included Crystallizing Public Opinion (1923); Propaganda (1928); and Public Relations (1945).

Diplomacy
Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip paid their first visit to Northern Ireland since the cease-fire between Loyalist forces and the Irish Republican Army had come into effect in 1994.

Canadian Fisheries Minister Brian Tobin ordered a Canadian fisheries patrol vessel to seize a Spanish trawler for illegally taking undersized turbot outside Canada's 200-mile offshore limit. The boat fired warning shots across bow of Spanish trawler Estai. The incident led to a dispute between Canada and the European Union.

The U.S. administration of President Bill Clinton announced that Gerry Adams, leader of Sinn Fein--the political arm of the Irish Republican Army--would be allowed an unlimited number of visits to the United States over the next three months, and would be permitted to raise money.

Economics and finance
Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon announced new austerity measures in response to conditions tied to the $50 million international aid package. To increase revenue, Mr. Zedillo raised the price of state-produced gasoline and electricity, and increased the value-added tax from 10%-15%. The federal budget would be cut by 10%.

20 years ago
2000

Died on this date
Jean Coulthard, 92. Canadian composer. Miss Coulthard, a native of Vancouver, was a piano teacher, and taught composition at the University of British Columbia, while writing four symphonies, a piano concerto, and other instrumental and choral works.

Politics and government
U.S. Senator Bill Bradley withdrew from the race for the Democratic Party nomination for President of the United States and endorsed Vice President Al Gore. U.S. Senator John McCain, the main challenger to Texas Governor George W. Bush for the Republican nomination, also withdrew, but did not endorse Mr. Bush.

The Canadian Human Resources and Development Department, already under fire for bungling job grants, took over the high-risk $1.5-billion per year Canada Student Loans program.

Economics and finance
President Gustavo Noboa Bejarano of Ecuador announced that he had signed a bill replacing his country’s currency, the sucre, with the U.S. dollar. Ecuador’s economic crisis had brought then-Vice President Noboa to the presidency in January after a coup had removed President Jamil Mahuad Witt. The International Monetary Fund said that it would put together $2 billion in aid for Ecuador.

10 years ago
2010

Died on this date
Willie Davis, 69. U.S. baseball player. Mr. Davis played center field with the Los Angeles Dodgers (1960-1973); Montreal Expos (1974); Texas Rangers (1975); St. Louis Cardinals (1975); San Diego Padres (1976); and California Angels (1979), batting .279 with 182 home runs, 1,053 runs batted in, and 398 stolen bases in 2,429 games. He helped the Dodgers win World Series championships in 1963 and 1965 and the National League pennant in 1966, batting .167 with no home runs and 3 RBIs in 15 World Series games, concluding his major league career with a double and a run in 2 pinch hitting at bats in the 1979 American League Championship Series. Mr. Davis set a World Series record with 3 errors in one inning in the second game of the 1966 World Series, but came back to win Gold Gloves from 1971-1973. He tied for the NL lead in triples (10) in 1962, and led the major leagues in triples (16) in 1970. Mr. Davis played with the Chunichi Dragons (1977) and Crown Lighter Lions (1978) in Japan, batting .297 with 43 homers and 132 RBIs in 199 games, and managed and played briefly with the Veracruz Aguila in the Mexican League (1980). Mr. Davis was found dead at his home in Burbank, California, apparently of natural causes.

Abominations
The first legal U.S. same-sex marriages south of the Mason–Dixon line took place in the District of Columbia.