May 9, 2021

350 years ago
1671

Crime
Thomas Blood, disguised as a clergyman, attempted to steal England's Crown Jewels from the Tower of London.

230 years ago
1791

Died on this date
Francis Hopkinson, 53. U.S. author, musician, artist, politician, and judge. Mr. Hopkinson wrote satires in pamphlets; designed the American flag; and signed the Declaration of Independence as a delegate from New Jersey. He played the harpsichord and wrote songs, becoming the first American-born composer to commit a song to paper (My Days Have Been So Wondrous Free (1759)). Mr. Hopkinson served as judge of the United States District Court for the District of Pennsylvania from 1789 until his death from an apoplectic seizure.

125 days ago
1896

Born on this date
Richard Day. Canadian-born U.S. art director and set decorator. Mr. Day, a native of Victoria, was a captain in the Canadian Army in World War I, and moved to Hollywood after the war. He worked on almost 300 films from 1919-1970, receiving 20 Academy Award nominations for art direction, and winning 7 Oscars. Mr. Day died on May 23, 1972, two weeks after his 76th birthday.

120 years ago
1901

Politics and government
The first Parliament of Australia opened in the Royal Exhibition Building in Melbourne.

Baseball
Earl Moore (2-2) of the Cleveland Blues gave up 2 unearned runs but no hits through 9 innings against the Chicago White Stockings, and the game was tied 2-2. Sam Mertes and Dutch Hartman hit singles in the 10th inning for the White Stockings, and they scored 2 runs to win 4-2. Jack Katoll (2-1) pitched a 6-hit complete game victory. Rain threatened for most of the game and was falling by the 10th inning, and only 400 fans were in attendance at League Park in Cleveland.

The Milwaukee Brewers scored a run in the bottom of the 8th inning and 3 in the 9th to overcome a 6-3 deficit and defeat the Detroit Tigers 7-6 before 1,000 fans at Lloyd Street Grounds in Milwaukee. Bill Reidy pitched the first 8 innings for Milwaukee before being lifted for a pinch hitter; Bert Husting (2-1) pitched a scoreless 9th inning and doubled in a run in the winning rally. Frank Owen (1-1) allowed 14 hits and 7 earned runs in a complete game loss. The game was played in 1 hour 45 minutes.

110 years ago
1911

Literature
The works of Gabriele D'Annunzio were placed in the Index of Forbidden Books by the Vatican.

100 years ago
1921

Born on this date
Sophie Scholl. German activist. Miss Scholl and her older brother Hans were leaders of the White Rose youth resistance movement in the early 1940s. She was 21 when she, Hans, and fellow White Rose member Christoph Probst were convicted of high treason and executed by guillotine in Munich on February 22, 1943, four days after being arrested for distributing anti-Nazi leaflets on the campus of the University of Munich.

Mona Van Duyn. U.S. poetess. Miss Van Duyn and her husband Jarvis Thurston taught at the University of Louisville in the late 1940s and then at Washington University in St. Louis for several decades; they founded and edited the journal Perspective: A Quarterly of Literature and the Arts from 1947-1975. Miss Van Duyn won every major poetry award in the United States, including the Pulitzer Prize for Near Changes (1990). She was Poet Laureate of the United States in 1992, and died of bone cancer on December 2, 2004 at the age of 83.

Daniel Berrigan. U.S. clergyman and activist. Rev. Berrigan was a Roman Catholic who joined the Jesuit order in 1939 and was ordained a priest in 1952. He and his brother Philip were known for their protests against the Vietnam War in the late 1960s; Daniel served time in prison as one of the Catonsville Nine who seized and burned U.S. draft records in 1968. Rev. Berrigan co-founded the Plowshares anti-nuclear protest movement in 1980. He wrote about 50 books, and died on April 30, 2016, nine days before his 95th birthday.

90 years ago
1931

Died on this date
Albert Michelson, 78. German-born U.S. physicist. Dr. Michelson moved to the United States with his parents at the age of 2. He taught at the U.S. Naval Academy before teaching at Clark University and then at the University of Chicago. Dr. Michelson was known for his work on measuring the speed of light and especially for the Michelson–Morley experiment with Edward Morley (1887). Dr. Michelson became the first American to win a Nobel Prize in a science when he was awarded the 1907 Nobel Prize in Physics "for his optical precision instruments and the spectroscopic and metrological investigations carried out with their aid."

Horse racing
Mate, with George Ellis up, won the 56th running of the Preakness Stakes before 40,000 fans at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore in a time of 1:59. Twenty Grand placed second, about a ength behind. The race took place a week before the Kentucky Derby, the last time until 2020 that the Preakness was the first of the Triple Crown races to be run.



80 years ago
1941

Theatre
The Drama League of New York awarded the Delia Austian Medal for the most distinguished performance of the season to Paul Lukas for his starring performance in Watch on the Rhine.

War
The German submarine U-110 is captured by the Royal Navy; on board was the latest Enigma machine which Allied cryptographers later used to break coded German messages. Between 300-400 British Royal Air Force bombers attacked the German cities of Bremen and Hamburg on the night of May 8-9. Japanese fliers raided the Chungking district in China in the second major air attack of the year.

Abominations
Nazi authorities extended the Nuremberg laws to France, forbidding Jews to engage in any business that would bring them into contact with "Aryans."

Defense
Japan announced that conferences had started in Tokyo with Germany and Italy to discuss questions relating to cooperation under the Axis Pact. The U.S. Maritime Commission announced that U.S. merchant ships would begin operating to the Red Sea area soon, and that service to China would be increased. U.S. Attorney General Robert Jackson ordered seizure of I.G. Farben-industrie's funds held by National City Bank of New York to force the chemical trust's appearance in court in answer to an antitrust indictment.

Diplomacy
The French-Thai peace conference ended in Tokyo with a treaty stating that any future dispute between Thailand and French Indochina would be mediated by Japan.

Politics and government
U.S. Senator George Aiken (Republican--Vermont) predicted that some form of state socialism would grow out of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's emergency powers.

Agriculture
The U.S. Agriculture Department estimated that 1941 winter wheat production would total 633,105,000 bushels.

Boxing
Billy Soose (32-4) won a controversial 15-round unanimous decision over Ken Overlin (122-29-6) at Madison Square Garden in New York to win the New York State Athletic Commission world middleweight championship.

75 years ago
1946

On television tonight
Hour Glass, hosted by Evelyn Eaton, on WNBT

This was the first broadcast of the variety program, which was shown live from New York, and was eventually was carried on NBC, thus becoming the first variety show to be broadcast on a network.

War
At the Nuremberg trial of accused Nazi war criminals, Admiral Karl Doenitz claimed that "millions of German lives" were saved because the war had been prolonged until the spring of 1945 so that they could flee the Soviets.

Diplomacy
At the Paris conference of foreign ministers, U.S.S.R. Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov responded to U.S. Secretary of State James Byrnes' proposal for adjournment by urging that an agreement on all peace treaties be reached before a general peace conference.

Defense
U.S. Army General Dwight D. Eisenhower concluded an inspection trip through China by visiting General George Marshall in Nanking.

Canadiana
The Canadian government of Prime Minister Mackenzie King declined to act on a recommendation from a joint committee of the Senate and House of Commons regarding the committee's choice of a new Canadian national flag; 2,695 designs had been submitted and the committee chose "the Canadian red ensign with a maple leaf in autumn golden colours in a bordered background of white". However, the Legislative Assembly of Quebec had urged the committee not to include any "foreign symbols," including the red ensign or union jack.

Italiana
King Victor Emmanuel III, who had been on the throne since July 1900, abdicated in favour of his son Umberto II, and left for exile in Egypt.

Medicine
The U.S. Army Commission on Neurotropic Diseases disclosed the development of a vaccine against dengue fever.

Economics and finance
The United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration Council demanded improvement of international food allocation machinery, after criticizing the Combined Food Board.

The U.S. House of Representatives voted $400 million for housing subsidies.

Labour
The United States Senate unanimously extended the Selective Service Act for possible use in the coal strike, and empowered the President to seize strike-bound plants. The 115-day strike of 75,000 United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers against Westinghouse Electric was settled with an agreement calling for an 18c hourly wage increase.

70 years ago
1951

Music
U.S. President Harry Truman performed an impromptu concert on a piano made of materials from all United Nations countries, presented to him as part of National Music Week festivities.

War
In the United Nations' biggest air raid of the Korean War, 312 planes attacked 100 Communist planes grounded at the Sinuiju air base in extreme northwestern Korea. North Korea charged that United Nations germ warfare in Korea had caused an epidemic of 3,500 cases of smallpox--10% fatal--from January-April 1951.

Defense
U.S. President Truman appointed General Matthew Ridgway, Gen. Douglas MacArthur's successor as Far Eastern commander, to the four-star rank of full general.

Politics and government
The Panamanian Congress voted to oust President Arnulfo Arias and install Vice President Alcibiades Arosemena as his successor, following Mr. Arias' attempt to assume dictatorial powers.

Health
The American Psychiatric Association reported that 8 million-12 million Americans had nervous or mental disorders and that one million mental patients had been treated in 1,000 U.S. institutions in 1949.

Oil
The Iranian government of Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh rejected an Anglo-Iranian Oil Company application under the 1933 Anglo-Iranian oil treaty for arbitration of the oil nationalization dispute.

Labour
The United Nations Economic and Social Council's Special Committee of Experts on Slavery reported that slavery still "exists in the world today" and other forms of involuntary servitude "appear to be growing" in some areas.

50 years ago
1961

Hit parade
#1 single in Norway (VG-lista): Are You Sure--The Allisons (2nd week at #1)

On television tonight
Alfred Hitchcock Presents, on NBC
Tonight's episode: You Can't Trust a Man, starring Polly Bergen, Joe Maross, and Frank Albertson

Thriller, hosted by Boris Karloff, on NBC
Tonight's episode: Mr. George, starring Virginia Gregg, Howard Freeman, and Lillian Bronson



Television
U.S. Federal Communications Commission chairman Newton Minow addressed the National Association of Broadcasters convention in Washington, and described the program output of television as a "vast wasteland," deploring the quantity of violence and mediocrity on television shows and warning that station licenses would not be renewed automatically, but that public hearings would be held in the local community to determine whether that community believed the station had been serving the public interest. He said, "You must provide a wider range of choices, more diversity, more alternatives. It is not enough to cater to the nation’s whims--You must also serve the nation’s needs. The people own the air...I believe in the people’s good sense and good taste, and I am not convinced that the people’s taste is as low as some of you assume."





Diplomacy
U.S. Vice President Lyndon Johnson left Washington for a tour of Asian nations to reassure them of U.S. support against Communist aggression.

Crime
Former professional football quarterback George Ratterman, an independent candidate for sheriff of Campbell County, Kentucky, woke up in bed at the Glenn Hotel in Newport with stripper Juanita Hodges, aka April Flowers, at 2:45 A.M., several hours after having his drink drugged with chloral hydrate, in an attempt to blackmail him and force him to drop from the race. Mr. Ratterman was charged with soliciting prostitution, but the plot, initiated by nightclub owner Tim Carinci, unravelled after a blood sample taken from Mr. Ratterman proved that he had been drugged. Publicity from the botched frame-up attempt catapulted Mr. Ratterman to victory in the November 1961 election.

Disasters
At least 185 people were killed when a typhoon struck East Pakistan.

Baseball
Baltimore Orioles’ first baseman Jim Gentile became the third player in major league history--after Tony Lazzeri in 1936 and Jim Tabor in 1939--to hit grand slams in consecutive innings, connecting against Pedro Ramos of the Minnesota Twins in the 1st inning and against Paul Giel on the first pitch in the 2nd inning before 4,514 fans at Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington. Mr. Gentile added a sacrifice fly to give him 9 runs batted in as the Orioles won 13-5s.

Hank Bauer's 2-run single climaxed a 4-run rally for the Kansas City Athletics in the bottom of the 8th inning as they overcame a 4-1 deficit to defeat the New York Yankees 5-4 before 13,623 fans at Municipal Stadium in Kansas City.

50 years ago
1971

Hockey
NHL
Stanley Cup
Finals
Chicago 2 @ Montreal 4 (Chicago led best-of-seven series 2-1)

The Black Hawks took a 2-0 lead at the Montreal Forum, but the Canadiens came back with goals by Pete Mahovlich, Yvan Cournoyer (set up by a spectacular rush by Terry Harper) and Frank Mahovlich.



40 years ago
1981

Hit parade
#1 single in Italy (Hit Parade Italia): Sarà perché ti amo--Ricchi e Poveri (5th week at #1)

#1 single in Flanders (Ultratop 50): Vienna--Ultravox (3rd week at #1)

#1 single in Ireland: Stars on 45--Starsound

#1 single in the U.K. (New Musical Express): Stars on 45--Starsound

#1 single in the U.K. (BMRB): Stand and Deliver--Adam and the Ants

Netherlands Top 10 (De Nederlandse Top 40)
1 Angel of Mine--Frank Duval & Orchestra (2nd week at #1)
2 Can You Feel It--The Jacksons
3 Making Your Mind Up--Bucks Fizz
4 Without Your Love--Roger Daltrey
5 Vienna--Ultravox
6 Chanson D'Amour--BZN
7 One Night Affair--Spargo
8 How 'bout Us--Champaign
9 You Better You Bet--The Who
10 9 to 5--Dolly

Singles entering the chart were Rain in May by Max Werner (#29); What Becomes Of The Broken Hearted by Dave Stewart (guest vocals Colin Blunstone) (#32); It's a Real Good Feeling by Peter Kent (#33); In the Heat of the Night by Vanessa (#34); Morning Train by Sheena Easton (#38); and Love Can Break Your Heart by Powerplay (#40).

U.S.A. Top 10 (Billboard)
1 Morning Train (Nine to Five)--Sheena Easton (2nd week at #1)
2 Just the Two of Us--Grover Washington, Jr.
3 Being with You--Smokey Robinson
4 Angel of the Morning--Juice Newton
5 Bette Davis Eyes--Kim Carnes
6 Kiss on My List--Daryl Hall & John Oates
7 Take it on the Run--REO Speedwagon
8 Living Inside Myself--Gino Vannelli
9 Sukiyaki--A Taste of Honey
10 I Can't Stand It--Eric Clapton and his Band

Singles entering the chart were Nobody Wins by Elton John (#71); Modern Girl by Sheena Easton (#81); Arc of a Diver by Steve Winwood (#82); Theme from "Greatest American Hero" (Believe it or Not) by Joey Scarbury (#85); You're So Easy to Love by Tommy James (#86); Almost Saturday Night by Dave Edmunds (#87); Lovin' the Night Away by the Dillman Band (#88); and Next Time You'll Know by Sister Sledge (#90). As the title indicates, Theme from "Greatest American Hero" (Believe it or Not) was the theme from the television series.

U.S.A. Top 10 (Cash Box)
1 Morning Train (Nine to Five)--Sheena Easton (4th week at #1)
2 Angel of the Morning--Juice Newton
3 Being with You--Smokey Robinson
4 Just the Two of Us--Grover Washington, Jr.
5 Bette Davis Eyes--Kim Carnes
6 Take it on the Run--REO Speedwagon
7 Kiss on My List--Daryl Hall & John Oates
8 Her Town Too--James Taylor and J.D. Souther
9 Rapture--Blondie
10 Somebody’s Knockin’--Terri Gibbs

Singles entering the chart were Nobody Wins by Elton John (#77); Modern Girl by Sheena Easton (#83); Mercy, Mercy, Mercy by Phoebe Snow (#86); Elvira by the Oak Ridge Boys (#89); and Two Hearts by Stephanie Mills featuring Teddy Pendergrass (#90).

U.S.A. Top 10 (Record World)
1 Morning Train (Nine to Five)--Sheena Easton (3rd week at #1)
2 Angel of the Morning--Juice Newton
3 Being with You--Smokey Robinson
4 Take it on the Run--REO Speedwagon
5 Just the Two of Us--Grover Washington, Jr.
6 Kiss on My List--Daryl Hall & John Oates
7 Bette Davis Eyes--Kim Carnes
8 Rapture--Blondie
9 Too Much Time on My Hands--Styx
10 Somebody's Knockin'--Terri Gibbs

Singles entering the chart were Nobody Wins by Elton John (#81); What Cha Gonna Do for Me by Chaka Khan (#86); Paradise by Change (#87); Two Hearts by Stephanie Mills featuring Teddy Pendergrass (#89); and Mercy, Mercy, Mercy by Phoebe Snow (#90).

Canada’s Top 10 (RPM)
1 Morning Train (Nine to Five)--Sheena Easton (2nd week at #1)
2 Angel of the Morning--Juice Newton
3 While You See a Chance--Steve Winwood
4 Shaddap You Face--Joe Dolce
5 You Better You Bet--The Who
6 I Missed Again--Phil Collins
7 Kiss on My List--Daryl Hall & John Oates
8 9 to 5--Dolly Parton
9 Wasn’t That a Party--The Rovers
10 Bette Davis Eyes--Kim Carnes

Singles entering the chart were Hold On by Ian Thomas (#45); Give a Little Bit More by Cliff Richard (#48); The Waiting by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers (#49); and This Little Girl by Gary U.S. Bonds (#50).

Vancouver's Top 10 (CFUN)
1 You Better You Bet--The Who (2nd week at #1)
2 Just the Two of Us--Grover Washington, Jr.
3 Take it on the Run--REO Speedwagon
4 I Missed Again--Phil Collins
5 Being with You--Smokey Robinson
6 Watching the Wheels--John Lennon
7 Too Much Time on My Hands--Styx
8 Time Out of Mind--Steely Dan
9 Bette Davis Eyes--Kim Carnes
10 Somebody's Knockin'--Terri Gibbs

Singles entering the chart were Beatles Medley by Stars on 45 (#23); and What are We Doin' in Love by Dottie West (with Kenny Rogers) (#28).

Died on this date
Nelson Algren, 72. U.S. author. Mr. Algren, born Nelson Ahlgren Abraham, was a Chicago-based writer who wrote about "down and out" people in novels such as The Man with the Golden Arm (1949) and A Walk on the Wild Side (1956).

Margaret Lindsay, 70. U.S. actress. Miss Lindsay was best known for her supporting performances in movies such as Jezebel (1938); The House of the Seven Gables (1940); and Scarlet Street (1945). She died of emphysema.

Soccer
English FA Cup Final @ Wembley Stadium, London
Manchester City 1 Tottenham 1

Tommy Hutchison opened the scoring for Manchester City in the 30th minute, but scored an own goal in the 79th minute. The game was replayed five days later.



Hockey
NHL
Stanley Cup
Quarter-Finals
Calgary 3 @ Minnesota 5 (Minnesota won best-of-seven series 4-2)

Brad Palmer scored the winning goal for the North Stars with 5:51 remaining in regulation time as they defeated the Flames at Metropolitan Sports Center in Bloomington.

Basketball
NBA
Finals
Boston 94 @ Houston 71 (Boston led best-of-seven series 2-1)

The Celtics took advantage of the Rockets' poor shooting to take a 17-point lead in the 2nd quarter and coasted to an easy win before 16,121 fans at the Summit. Cedric Maxwell led Boston scorers with 19 points, while Moses Malone of the Rockets led all scorers with 23 points and grabbed 15 rebounds.



30 years ago
1991

Hit parade
#1 single in Ireland (IRMA): The Shoop Shoop Song (It's in his Kiss)--Cher (2nd week at #1)

Energy
The National Energy Board of Canada gave TransCanada Pipelines the green light for a $2.6 billion line into the United States, plus 15 export licenses for 1.6 trillion cubic feet of gas. Ottawa, Ontario

Environment
The Canadian federal and provincial governments unveiled a 5-year, $100-million plan to combat ground-level ozone, a harmful component of city smog.

25 years ago
1996

Hit parade
#1 single in Finland (Musiikkituottajat – IFPI Finland): Children--Robert Miles (2nd week at #1)

#1 single in Denmark (Nielsen Music Control & IFPI): X-Files--DJ Dado

Abominations
The Canadian House of Commons approved a bill adding sexual orientation to the Canadian Human Rights Act.

In one of the most ridiculous jury verdicts in history, a jury in Calgary acquitted Dorothy Joudrie of the attempted murder of her estranged husband, businessman Earl Joudrie, ruling that she was suffering from momentary insanity--the insanity having come upon her the moment before the shooting, and vanishing the moment after the shooting.

Politics and government
Former South African President F.W. de Klerk took his National Party out of the governing coalition.

Hockey
NHL
Stanley Cup
Eastern Conference Semi-Finals
Philadelphia 3 @ Florida 4 (OT) (Best-of-seven series tied 2-2)
Pittsburgh 4 @ New York Rangers 1 (Pittsburgh led best-of-seven series 3-1)

20 years ago
2001

Disasters
129 football fans at Ohene Djan Stadium in Accra, Ghana died when, following a controversial decision by the referee, police fired tear gas into the crowd to quell unrest at the end of a football match, resulting in a stampede of fans.





10 years ago
2011

Died on this date
Lidia Gueiler Tejada, 89. President of Bolivia, 1979-1980. Miss Guelier joined the Movimiento Nacionalista Revolucionario (MNR) in 1948, and was a member of the Congress of Bolivia (1956-1964). She went into foreign exile after MNR was toppled by a military coup, joining the Revolutionary Party of the Nationalist Left (PRIN) and becoming vice-president of the Revolutionary Left Front. Miss Gueiler returned to Bolivia in 1979, and was elected President of the Chamber of Deputies. The 1979 Bolivian presidential election resulted in an impasse in Congress after no candidate received a majority of the popular vote. Miss Gueiler served as interim President, in charge of conducting new elections on June 29, 1980, but was herself overthrown in a coup led by her cousin, General Luis García Meza Tejada, on July 17, 1980, before the new parliamentarians could take their seats. She lived in France until Gen. Meza's dictatorship was overthrown in 1982. Miss Gueiler returned to Bolivia and held ambassadorial posts to Colombia, West Germany, and Venezuela before retiring from public life in the mid-1990s. She died after a long illness.

Dolores Fuller, 88. U.S. actress and songwriter. Mrs. Fuller was the girlfriend of legendary movie director Ed Wood in the mid-late 1950s, and appeared in his films Glen or Glenda (1953); Jail Bait (1954); and Bride of the Monster (1955). She had small roles in other movies, such as Mesa of Lost Women (1953). Mrs. Fuller later had success writing songs for artists such as Nat King Cole and Peggy Lee; she was noted for co-writing songs for Elvis Presley, including Rock-A-Hula Baby (1961) and Spinout (1966).