February 15, 2021

Born on this date
Happy Birthday, Arlene Carlstrom!

400 years ago
1621

Died on this date
Michael Praetorius, 49. German composer. Mr. Praetorius, born Michael Schultze, was an organist who composed works for organ, but was better known for his choral works. He was influenced by Italian music, and developed the chorale concerto, especially the polychoral variety. Mr. Praetorius died after a long illness.

225 years ago
1796

War
The invasion of Ceylon ended with Johan van Angelbeek, the Batavian governor of the island, surrendering Colombo to British forces.

210 years ago
1811

Born on this date
Domingo Faustino Sarmiento. 7th President of Argentina, 1868-1874. Mr. Sarmiento was a member of a group of Argentine intellectuals known as the Generation of 1837, who had a tremendous influence on the country. He became famous for his book Facundo: Civilización y Barbarie (Facundo: Civilization and Barbarism) (1845), a critique of Argentine dictator Juan Manuel de Rosas. Mr. Sarmiento was a Liberal who, as President, modernized Argentina's educational, postal, and train systems. He died of a heart attack in Asunción, Paraguay on September 11, 1888 at the age of 77.

180 years ago
1841

Born on this date
Manuel Ferraz de Campos Sales. 4th President of Brazil, 1898-1902. Dr. Campos Sales, a member of the Republican Party of São Paulo, was Minister of Justice from 1889-1891 and Governor of São Paulo from 1896-1897 before being elected President. He was a federal Senator from 1891-1896 and 1911 until his death on June 28, 1913 at the age of 72.

160 years ago
1861

Born on this date
Charles Édouard Guillaume. Swiss physicist. Dr. Guillaume was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1920 in recognition of the service he had rendered to precision measurements in physics by his discovery of anomalies in nickel steel alloys. He died on May 13, 1938 at the age of 77.

Alfred North Whitehead. U.K.-born U.S. philosopher. Professor Whitehead and former student Bertrand Russell combined to write the three-volume Principia Mathematica (1910-1913), one of the most influential works in mathematical logic. Professor Whitehead moved to the United States in 1924 and joined the faculty of Harvard University, where his attention eventually turned to philosophy and metaphysics. Professor Whitehead was the defining figure of process philosophy, arguing that reality consists of processes rather than material objects, and that processes are best defined by their relations with other processes. He died on December 30, 1947 at the age of 86. The newspaper comic panel Our Boarding House contained an occasional character who was a professor named Alfred North Blankhead.

140 years ago
1881

Transportation
An Act Respecting the Canadian Pacific Railway, Victoria 41, Chapter 1 (Pacific Railway bill) received royal assent; the CPR was chartered and given until May 1, 1891, to finish the line.

120 years ago
1901

War
The Canadian cavalry unit Lord Strathcona's Horse was awarded the Queen's South Africa Medal, becoming the first unit to receive that honour.

100 years ago
1921

Diplomacy
The Kingdom of Romania established its legation in Helsinki.

Winnipegana
The Capitol Theatre, a "movie palace," opened.

80 years ago
1941

Hit parade
#1 single in the U.S.A. (Billboard): Frenesi--Artie Shaw and his Orchestra (9th week at #1)

Diplomacy
The government of Chile took possession of three Danish ships tied up in Talcahuano harbour since the Nazi occupation of Denmark.

The U.S. State Department revealed that Italy had requested the United States to close its consulates in Naples and Palermo.

Defense
The U.S. House of Representatives Naval Committee approved legislation authorizing expenditures of $400 million on naval bases in the Pacific, including Guam and Samoa.

Aviation
U.S. Civil Aeronautics Administrator Donald H. Connolly said that over 100,000 certified pilots would have been trained under the CAA's program by June 30, 1941.

Labour
The U.S. Office of Production Management announced that the Congress of Industrial Organizations United Auto Workers strike at Allis-Chalmers had been settled.

Track and field
At the New York Athletic Club games, Greg Rice set a world record of 8:53.4 in winning the two-mile run.

75 years ago
1946

At the movies
Behind Green Lights, directed by Otto Brower, and starring Carole Landis and William Gargan, opened in theatres.



War
At the trial in Nuremberg of accused Nazi war criminals, Soviet prosecutor Smirnov said that defendant Hans Frank was responsible for the deaths of at least three million Jews. At the hearings of the United States Senate committee on the December 7, 1941 Japanese attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, former White House naval aide Lester Schulz testified that U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt had said "This means war" after reading the decoded Japanese message of December 6, 1941, but he had not mentioned Pearl Harbor.

Diplomacy
The United Nations Security Council agreed that British and French troops should leave Syria and Lebanon, but failed to settle on a timetable.

Politics and government
Egyptian Prime Minister Mahmoud Fahmy Nokrashy Pasha and his cabinet resigned after a week of anti-British student demonstrations in Cairo.

Chinese Communists demanded joint control of Manchuria with the Kuomintang and other parties.

Crime
Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie King told the House of Commons about Soviet spy ring activities in Canada, explaining measures needed to investigate and detain suspects. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police arrested 21 members of a spy ring who allegedly transmitted atomic and radar secrets to the U.S.S.R.

Defense
U.S. Army and Navy sources revealed that robot aircraft called "drones" would be used to gather data during the atomic bomb tests at Bikini atoll.

Protest
Anti-British demonstrations in India spread to Meerut, after 45 people had been killed and 400 injured in rioting in Calcutta, Bombay, and New Delhi.

Labour
United States Steel and the Congress of Industrial Organizations United Steel Workers agreed on an 18½c hourly wage increase, ending a four-week strike by 150,000 steel workers.

70 years ago
1951

At the movies
Bedtime for Bonzo, directed by Fred de Cordova, and starring Ronald Reagan and Diana Lynn, received its premiere screening at the Circle Theatre in Indianapolis.



War
A relief force reached U.S. and French troops isolated by Chinese Communists at Chipyong in central Korea.

Defense
U.S. Defense Secretary George Marshall said that the United States planned to send more divisions totalling 100,000 men to Europe this year.

World events
King Tribhubana Bir Bikram of Nepal returned to Katmandu and was restored to the throne after three months' exile in India.

Education
The Georgia state legislature passed a budget with a provision barring funds to public schools and colleges if any all-white school admitted a Negro student.

Popular culture
The 1951 Christopher Awards went to Karl Stern for his autobiography Pillar of Fire; Houston Harte and Guy Rowe for In Our Image; and Evelyn Wells for Miracle at Carville.

Economics and finance
80 major firms and 200 subsidiaries, which together accounted for 91.8% of the United Kingdom's iron and steel production, were transferred to state ownership under the iron-steel nationalization program enacted by Parliament in 1950.

60 years ago
1961

World events
East German police announced the virtual lifting of restrictions on travel of West Germans into East Berlin. The move was attributed in part to western protests against the action of East German police three days earlier in barring about 40 evangelical pastors and laymen from attending church in East Berlin.

Diplomacy
Responding to U.S. President John F. Kennedy’s congratulatory message on the February 12 launch of the space probe Venera 1, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev said that agreement between the U.S.A. and U.S.S.R. on disarmament "would be a great joy for all people on earth, and a great boon for the whole of mankind." He noted Mr. Kennedy’s appeal in his January 20 inaugural address for a pooling of efforts in the struggle against disease, the conquest of space, and the development of culture and trade, and continued: "We consider that the solution of the disarmament problem would provide conditions favouring the earliest realization of these noble tasks before mankind. And we would like every country to exert every effort for the solution of this problem with the establishment of such strict international controls that no one could arm in secret and commit aggression."

U.S. President Kennedy, addressing a news conference, warned that the United States would defend the charter of the United Nations "by opposing any attempt by any government to intervene unilaterally in the Congo," and said that the U.S.A. considered the Congolese government of President Joseph Kasavubu "the only legal authority entitled to speak for the Congo as a whole." U.S. Ambassador to the UN Adlai Stevenson told the Security Council that the previous day’s statement from the Soviet Union threatening to unilaterally support the "legitimate" Congolese government of Antoine Gizenga and calling for the resignation of Dag Hammarskjold as UN Secretary-General and for the withdrawal of the UN force from the Congo within a month was "a declaration of war on the United Nations and on the principle of international action on behalf of peace." Mr. Stevenson’s speech was interrupted by a violent demonstration by a group composed largely of American Negroes. Mr. Hammarskjold said he would not resign, but would stay in his post as long as the UN needed him.



Defense
U.S. President Kennedy, in a message read to the Permanent Council of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in Paris, pledged "the United States, and my own unremitting efforts, to the support of the principles which guide our effort, to the basic concept of unity which gives us strength, and to the institutions we have created to give working life to our common intent." He pledged the maintenance of U.S. military strength in Europe, and promised U.S. co-operation in efforts to broaden NATO co-ordination in economic, ideological, and political fields. Mr. Kennedy said the U.S. was prepared to pay a heavy share of the military and economic cost of NATO, but stressed that the nations of western Europe must pay their fair share.

Disasters
Sabena Airlines Flight 548, a Boeing 707 jet, crashed at Berg, Belgium, seconds before it was to land at Brussels airport, killing at least 73 people. Most of the passengers were American, including the entire 18-member United States figure skating team, who were to take part in the world championships in Prague the following week.



50 years ago
1971

Hit parade
#1 single in Australia (Kent Music Report): My Sweet Lord--George Harrison (5th week at #1)

#1 single in Japan (Oricon Singles Chart): Hanayome--Norihiko Hashida & Climax

#1 single in Spain (PROMUSICAE): Te Quiero, Te Quiero--Nino Bravo (9th week at #1)

Austria's Top 10 (Ö3)
1 Hier ist ein Mensch--Peter Alexander (5th week at #1)
2 Ruby Tuesday--Melanie
3 Paranoid--Black Sabbath
4 Black Night--Deep Purple
5 Oh, wann kommst du?--Daliah Lavi
6 Apeman--The Kinks
7 I Hear You Knocking--Dave Edmunds
8 Walking Round--Eric [Marlyn]
9 My Sweet Lord--George Harrison
10 Abraham (Das Lied vom Trödler)--Wolfgang

Singles entering the chart were Apeman; My Sweet Lord; I Think I Love You by the Partridge Family (#11); Little Queenie by the Rolling Stones (#12); Mungo's Blues (Dust Pneumonia Blues) by Mungo Jerry (#14); Lonely Days by the Bee Gees (#15); Black Magic Woman by Santana (#16); Birdie by the Soulful Dynamics (#17); and The Witch by the Rattles (#20).

Economics and finance
The British government launched a new decimal currency across the United Kingdom.

40 years ago
1981

Hit parade
#1 single in New Zealand (RIANZ): The Tide is High--Blondie

#1 single in Switzerland: Some Broken Hearts Never Mend--Telly Savalas

Austria's Top 10 (Ö3)
1 Angel of Mine--Frank Duval & Orchestra (3rd week at #1)
2 Some Broken Hearts Never Mend--Telly Savalas
3 (Just Like) Starting Over--John Lennon
4 Stop the Cavalry--Jona Lewie
5 Super Trouper--ABBA
6 More than I Can Say--Leo Sayer
7 Felicidad (Margherita)--Boney M.
8 The Tide is High--Blondie
9 Woman in Love--Barbra Streisand
10 De Do Do Do De Da Da Da--The Police

Singles entering the chart were Stop the Cavalry; De Do Do Do De Da Da Da; Hungry Heart by Bruce Springsteen (#14); and Imagine by John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band (#16).

Died on this date
Karl Richter, 54. German musician and conductor. Mr. Richter was a church organist, harpsichordist, and cantor before becoming conductor of the Münchener Bach-Chor in 1954, and the Münchener Bach-Orchester. He was also the harpsichordist and conductor of the Bachwoche Ansbach (1955-1964), and was best known for performing and conducting the works of Johann Sebastian Bach, and making numerous recordings. Mr. Richter died of a heart attack in a hotel in Munich.

Mike Bloomfield, 37. U.S. musician. Mr. Bloomfield was a blues guitarist and songwriter who was regarded as one of the best guitarists of his time. He played with the Paul Butterfield Blues Band (1965-1967) and the Electric Flag (1967-1968), and on recording sessions of numerous other musicians. Heroin addiction interrupted Mr. Bloomfield's career in the 1970s. He was found dead in San Francisco in his car with all the doors locked and an empty Valium bottle next to him. The autopsy showed no drugs in his system, and the coroner ruled Mr. Bloomfield's death accidental, but could not identify a cause.

World events
The bullet-ridden bodies of 14 young people, all showing signs of torture, were found east of Guatemala City. Heavy gunfire also erupted in front of the headquarters of the liberal Christian Democratic Party, leaving one dead and three wounded.

Crime
The U.S. Federal Drug Enforcement Administration announced that, despite hundreds of millions of dollars spent each year in the battle against heroin, only 2%-5% of the illegal drug traffic was being kept from distribution channels. The prime reason was that nothing could be done to curb production of narcotics in Iran, Afghanistan, and parts of Pakistan. Four other problems were also mentioned: restricted budgets for fighting the traffic, coupled with the inflation of heroin prices, had left enforcement officials without funds for undercover investigators to buy drugs; the administration of President Jimmy Carter was uncommitted to fighting drugs; there was a lack of long-term planning in the campaign against drug distribution; and it was easy for drug dealers to obtain release on bail after their arrests.

Religion
Pope John Paul II began a tour of east Asia with a visit to Japan.

Energy
United Bio-Fuel Industries announced that they would build a $60-million plant in Petersburg, Virginia to make ethanol from municipal garbage, and from agricultural, industrial, and forest wastes. It was expected that the plant could produce ethanol at a cost from 70 c-$1.15 per gallon.

Disasters
It was announced that two months of heavy rain had flooded nearly 400,000 acres in the vicinity of Buruan, Philippines, killing 220 and causing sickness in more than 14,000 people.

Auto racing
NASCAR
Richard Petty finished 3.5 seconds ahead of Bobby Allison to win his record seventh Daytona 500. Mr. Petty’s first Daytona 500 win came in 1964.



Hockey
NHL
Buffalo 2 @ Edmonton 2

30 years ago
1991

War
For the first time since the beginning of the Gulf War, Iraq offered to pull out of Kuwait, but the offer was tied to agreements that sanctions would be lifted and the issue of reparations dropped. Under Iraq’s proposal, its debts to Allied nations would be forgiven, and Israel would have to withdraw from its occupied territories. U.S. President George Bush rejected the offer as a "cruel hoax," and called on the Iraqi military and citizenry to "tale matters into their own hands" and force dictator Saddam Hussein from power. Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney said that the Iraqi proposal was a diversion of "malicious intent." Some nations, including Jordan and Iran, said that the Iraqi initiative merited a cease-fire.

A CBS news crew, missing since January 21, was reported held in Baghdad. All western journalists had been told to leave Iraq and Kuwait on January 19, making it difficult to confirm reports of events.

Economics and finance
The Visegrád Agreement, establishing cooperation to move toward free-market systems, was signed by the leaders of Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland.

Canada joined Mexico and the U.S.A. in talks in Washington on a continental free-trade pact.

The United States Commerce Department reported that the merchandise trade deficit stood at $101 billion in 1990 the lowest amount since 1983. The U.S. Labor Department reported that producer prices had fallen 0.1% in January.

Disasters
More than 122 people were killed when a trailer-truck carrying dynamite overturned in the Thai province of Phang Nga. The dynamite then exploded, killing some of those who had gathered at the scene.

25 years ago
1996

Hit parade
#1 single in Finland (Musiikkituottajat – IFPI Finland): Spaceman--Babylon Zoo (3rd week at #1)

#1 single in Denmark (Nielsen Music Control & IFPI): Spaceman--Babylon Zoo (3rd week at #1)

On television tonight
The Sunshine Boys, starring Woody Allen, Peter Falk, and Sarah Jessica Parker, received its premiere broadcast in Australia. The made-for-television movie was first shown in North America on CBS on December 28, 1997.



Died on this date
Lucio Agostini, 82. Italian-born Canadian musician. Mr. Agostini moved with his family to Montreal when he was 3. He was a cellist with the Montreal Philharmonic Orchestra before beginning a long career as a composer and arranger with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

McLean Stevenson, 78. U.S. actor. Mr. Stevenson was best known for playing Lieutenant Colonel Henry Blake in the television comedy series M*A*S*H from 1972-1975. He starred in several series after leaving M*A*S*H, with little success.

Tommy Rettig, 54. U.S. actor. Mr. Rettig was best known as one of the stars of the television series Lassie from 1954-1957. He later became a pothead and computer database programmer. Mr. Rettig died of a heart attack.

Politics and government
The Nisga'a Tribal Council initialled an agreement in principle with the governments of Canada and British Columbia; the first modern-day treaty in B.C., which went into effect on May 11, 2000, called for a grant of $190 million and communal ownership of, and self-government over, 1,930 square kilometres of land in the Nass River valley in northwestern B.C.

Parliamentary elections in Bangladesh resulted in a landslide victory for the incumbent caretaker government, amid charges of vote-rigging. The three opposition parties had demanded a boycott of the elections, and there had been violent protests. Voter turnout was only 10%.

Defense
The long-awaited report into the sale of British arms to Iraq in the 1980s was published, and contained strong criticisms of the ministers involved.

Protest
Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien throttled protester Bill Clennett, who was disrupting Flag Day ceremonies in Hull, Quebec, launching a small controversy over what was called Mr. Chrétien's "Shawinigan Handshake."



Disasters
At the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in China, a Long March 3 rocket carrying an American Intelsat 708 satellite crashed into a rural village after liftoff, killing many people.

20 years ago
2001

Diplomacy
Congolese President Joseph Kabila met in Zambia with Congolese rebel leaders and agreed to open talks with them. Science
The first draft of the complete human genome was published in Nature.

10 years ago
2011

Protest
Protesters swarmed Wisconsin's capitol in Madison after Governor Scott Walker proposed cutbacks in benefits and bargaining rights for public employees.