August 6, 2021

800 years ago
1221

Died on this date
Dominic de Guzmán, 50. Castilian clergyman. Dominic was a Roman Catholic priest who founded the Order of Preachers--better known as the Dominican Order--which was approved by Pope Innocent III in 1216. He lived an ascetic lifestyle, and died of a fever, perhaps the result of overwork, two days before his 51st birthday. Dominic was canonized by Pope Gregory IX in 1234, and is the patron saint of astronomers.

360 years ago
1661

Diplomacy
The Treaty of The Hague was signed by representatives of Portugal and the Dutch Republic. The Dutch Republic recognized Portuguese imperial sovereignty over New Holland (Dutch Brazil) in exchange for an indemnity of 4 million reis, conversion from 2 million Caroli Guilders, over the span of 16 years.

160 years ago
1861

Diplomacy
Oba Dosunmu of Lagos, under the threat of military bombardment, ceded Lagos Island to Great Britain, while retaining the title and powers of Oba, subject to English laws.

140 years ago
1881

Born on this date
Alexander Fleming. U.K. biologist and pharmacologist. Sir Alexander shared the 1945 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Howard Florey and Ernst Chain "for the discovery of penicillin and its curative effect in various infectious diseases." He died on March 11, 1955 at the age of 73.

Louella Parsons. U.S. journalist. Miss Parsons wrote the first newspaper gossip column in the United States with the Chicago Record Herald
from 1914-1918, but made her name as a movie and gossip columnist from the mid-1920s until the mid-1960s with newspapers owned by William Randolph Hearst. She died on December 9, 1972 at the age of 91.

Died on this date
James Springer White, 60. U.S. religious leader. Mr. White began publishing the Sabbatarian Adventist periodical The Present Truth in 1849. He and his wife Ellen were among the co-founders of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in 1863. Mr. White suffered a paralytic stroke in 1865, and died from a fever, two days after his 60th birthday.

130 years ago
1891

Born on this date
William Slim, 1st Viscount Slim. U.K. military officer. Governor-General of Australia, 1953-1960. Field Marshal Slim saw action in both World Wars, serving with the Anzacs and the Indian Army in World War I, and commanding the Burma Corps in World War II. Viscount Slim died on December 14, 1970 at the age of 79.

120 years ago
1901

Born on this date
Dutch Schultz. U.S. gangster. Mr. Schultz, born Arthur Simon Flegenheimer, was a New York-based bootlegger and numbers racketeer who began his criminal career in his late teens. Two trials on charges of income tax evasion resulted in a hung jury in 1934 and then acquittal in 1935. Mr. Schultz was forced to relocate to Newark, and asked the National Crime Syndicate for permission to murder New York Attorney Thomas Dewey, who had prosecuted his tax evasion cases. Mafia leader Lucky Luciano refused, and ordered the elimination of "the Dutchman." Mr. Schultz died on October 24, 1935 at the age of 34, the day after being gunned down with two associates by henchmen of Mr. Luciano at the Palace Chop Hopuse in Newark.

Americana
Kiowa land in Oklahoma was opened for white settlement, effectively dissolving the contiguous reservation.

110 years ago
1911

Born on this date
Lucille Ball. U.S. actress and producer. Miss Ball appeared in a number of movies in the 1930s and '40s before achieving stardom in the radio comedy series My Favorite Husband (1948-1951). She then became one of television's biggest stars with the series I Love Lucy (1951-1957); The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour (1957-1960); The Lucy Show (1962-1968); and Here's Lucy (1968-1974). With her first husband, Desi Arnaz, Miss Ball founded Desilu studios, which she began running in 1962, with great success. She died of a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm on April 26, 1989 at the age of 77.

Constance Heaven. U.K. authoress and actress. Mrs. Heaven, born Constance Fecher, was an actress from 1939-1956, but was best known for writing historical and romance novels under her maiden and married names and the pseudonym Christina Merlin. Her novel The House of Kuragin (1972) was named Romance Novel of the Year in 1973. Mrs. Heaven died on April 12, 1995 at the age of 83.

90 years ago
1931

Died on this date
Bix Beiderbecke, 28. U.S. musician. Mr. Beiderbecke was a cornetist and pianist who was one of the major figures in jazz in the 1920s, performing and recording under his own name and with bands led by Jean Goldkette, Frank Trumbauer, Paul Whiteman, and Hoagy Carmichael. He was known for cornet solos on recordings of tunes such as Singin' the Blues (1927) and I'm Coming, Virginia (1927), while his best-known composition and recording was the piano solo In a Mist (1927). Heavy drinking interfered with Mr. Beiderbecke's career and led to his death, which occurred in his New York apartment after an episode of hysterical screaming and trembling.

80 years ago
1941

Died on this date
Elwyn Hargraves; Ned Turman. U.S. soldiers. Sergeant Hargraves and Mr. Turman, a Negro draftee, were killed, and three military policemen were wounded, in a gun battle at the U.S. Army base at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

War
General Wladyslaw Anders, who had been released from a Soviet prison camp, was appointed commander of a Polish army to be raised in Russia. Two Germans who were allegedly landed by seaplane off the British coast were executed as spies at Wandsworth Prison in London. A Japanese spokesman said that the United States was threatening Japan by seeking Soviet support for an encirclement plan. U.K. Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden told the House of Commons that any Japanese action against Thailand "would be a matter of concern" to Britain "as a threat to the security of Singapore." U.S. Secretary of State Cordell Hull said that Japanese occupation of Thailand would bear directly upon the problem of American security. The Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano claimed that Pope Pius XII had helped to bring about an armistice in the border war between Ecuador and Peru.

Defense
The U.S. Senate voted against extending the service of draftees to a total of two years; interventionists argued that draftees may have to be in the Army for five years. The Senate voted 57-19 to override President Franklin D. Roosevelt's veto of the $320-million defense highway bill, which would apportion the money among states instead of according to military needs.

Politics and government
The Ecuadorian Congress voted unlimited economic and military powers, including censorship, to President Carlos Arroyo del Rio for the period of the present extraordinary and the next ordinary session of Congress.

Education
Georgia Governor Eugene Talmadge appointed a five-man committee to weed out all public school textbooks that advocated racial equality, Nazism, Communism, Fascism, or socialism.

75 years ago
1946

Died on this date
Tony Lazzeri, 42. U.S. baseball player. Mr. Lazzeri was a second baseman with the New York Yankees (1926-1937); Chicago Cubs (1938); Brooklyn Dodgers (1939); and New York Giants (1939), batting .292 with 178 home runs and 1,191 runs batted in in 1,740 games. He was a member of World Series championship teams in 1927, 1928, 1932, 1936, and 1937. On May 24, 1936, "Poosh 'Em Up Tony" became the first major league player to hit 2 grand slams in the same game, and drove in 11 runs, an American league record that still stands. Mr. Lazzeri was an epileptic, but never had a seizure on the field; he died of a reported heart attack, although it was also said that he had suffered a seizure and fallen down the stairs at his home and broken his neck. Mr. Lazzeri was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1991.

War
Chinese Nationalist and Communist representatives at the Truce Executive headquarters in Peking agreed to a truce in the western provinces of Hupeh, Honan, and Shansi.

Politics and government
U.S. Representative John Sparkman (Democrat--Alabama) was chosen in the state Democratic primary to complete the U.S. Senate term of the late John Bankhead. Democrats in Virginia renominated U.S. Senator Harry Byrd in the state primary and named Porter Hardy, Jr. and Thomas Stanley candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives.

Society
The British government of Prime Minister Clement Attlee introduced a "bonuses for babies" program under the Family Allowance Act, designed to increase the birth rate at a weekly cost of $4 million.

Transportation
The U.S. National Safety Council announced that 18 American airlines had completed their 1945 schedules with no fatal accidents.

70 years ago
1951

On television tonight
Lights Out, on NBC
Tonight's episode: The Faceless Man, starring Robert Sterling, Ted Hecht, and Pat Peardon



War
Commander-in-Chief of the United Nations Command General Matthew Ridgway's headquarters issued a statement saying that it wanted a Korean truce on "the line now generally held by United Nations forces."

Defense
Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohammed Salah el-Din told Parliament that Egypt would abrogate the 1936 Suez defense pact with the United Kingdom, following the recent failure of recent negotiations to change it.

General Charles Bolte, Inter-American Defense Board chairman, told the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations and Armed Services Committees that Latin America could take over a large share of Western Hemisphere defense if given $62 million worth otf U.S. aid.

Politics and government
U.S. Senator William Benton (Democrat--Connecticut) introduced a resolution calling for investigation of Sen. Joseph McCarthy's (Republican--Wisconsin) practices in the 1950 election campaign and of "his other acts since his election to the Senate" to decide whether he should be expelled.

Germanica
The Bavarian state government announced that it would destroy Adolf Hitler's Berchtesgaden retreat in order to make certain that it did not become a neo-Nazi shrine.

60 years ago
1961

Space
U.S.S.R. cosmonaut Gherman Titov went into Earth orbit aboard Vostok 2, launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, on his way to becoming the first man to spend a full day in space.

50 years ago
1971

Hit parade
#1 single in New Zealand (RIANZ): Me and You and a Dog Named Boo--Lobo (3rd week at #1)

#1 single in West Germany (Media Control): Butterfly--Danyel Gérard (11th week at #1)

South Africa's Top 10 (Springbok Radio)
1 Funny Funny--The Sweet (6th week at #1)
2 Co-Co--The Sweet
3 I Did What I Did for Maria--Tony Christie
4 Mozart: Symphony No. 40 In G Minor K.550 1° Movement (Allegro Molto)--Waldo de Los Rios
5 Long Days and Lonely Nights--Lincoln
6 Hold On (To What You Got)--Peanutbutter Conspiracy
7 It Don't Come Easy--Ringo Starr
8 Rain, Rain, Rain--Gentle People
9 Sea Cruise--Johnny Rivers
10 The Banner Man--Blue Mink

Singles entering the chart were You by Peter Maffay (#18); and Flower Life by Lauren Copley (#20).

Vancouver's Top 10 (CKLG)
1 Draggin' the Line--Tommy James
2 How Can You Mend a Broken Heart--The Bee Gees
3 Sweet City Woman--Stampeders
4 Take Me Home, Country Roads--John Denver with Fat City
5 Liar--Three Dog Night
6 What the World Needs Now is Love/Abraham, Martin and John--Tom Clay
7 Sooner or Later--The Grass Roots
8 Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey--Paul & Linda McCartney
9 Mr. Big Stuff--Jean Knight
10 Sweet Hitch-Hiker--Creedence Clearwater Revival

Singles entering the chart were We Got a Dream by Ocean (#24); Ain't No Sunshine by Bill Withers (#25); Do You Know What I Mean by Lee Michaels (#26); Won't Get Fooled Again by the Who (#28); Happy People by Crowbar (#29); and Mighty Clouds of Joy by B.J. Thomas (#30).

Vancouver's Top 10 (CKVN)
1 Sweet City Woman--Stampeders
2 What the World Needs Now is Love/Abraham, Martin and John--Tom Clay
3 Don't Pull Your Love--Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds
4 Take Me Home, Country Roads--John Denver with Fat City
5 Sweet Hitch-Hiker--Creedence Clearwater Revival
6 How Can You Mend a Broken Heart--The Bee Gees
7 Never Ending Song of Love--Delaney & Bonnie & Friends
8 Beginnings--Chicago
9 Mr. Big Stuff--Jean Knight
10 Sooner or Later--The Grass Roots

Singles entering the chart were Rain Dance by the Guess Who (#29); Bangla-Desh by George Harrison (#30); Maggie May by Rod Stewart (#36); Spanish Harlem by Aretha Franklin (#37); Ain't No Sunshine by Bill Withers (#38); and Go Down Gamblin' by Blood, Sweat & Tears (#39).

Politics and government
King Hassan II of Morocco appointed a new government headed by Prime Minister Mohamed Karim Lamrani.

Adventure
Chay Blyth of the U.K. arrived home in Hamble, England, becoming the first man to sail around the world from east to west, against the prevailing winds and currents.



Football
CFL
Saskatchewan (1-3) 17 @ Toronto (2-0) 22



40 years ago
1981

Baseball
Major league owners voted to divide the season, which had been interrupted by a two-month strike, into halves, with the teams leading their divisions at the time of the strike--New York Yankees, Oakland Athletics, Philadelphia Phillies, and Los Angeles Dodgers--to play a best-of-five playoff series against the winners of the second half pennants, or wild card teams, if the same team won both halves.

Intercontinental Cup @ Renfrew Park, Edmonton
Dominican Republic (1-0) 6 @ Australia (0-1) 2
Panama (0-1) 2 @ Canada (1-0) 7

30 years ago
1991

Died on this date
Roland Michener, 91. Governor General of Canada, 1967-1974. Mr. Michener began his political career in provincial politics in Ontario before entering federal politics as a Progressive Conservative. He represented the Toronto riding of St. Paul's in the House of Commons from 1953-1962, and served as the Speaker of the House of Commons from 1957-1962. Mr. Michener was appointed Canada's High Commissioner to India in July 1964 and Ambassador to Nepal in January 1965. He was recalled to Canada to become Governor General after the death in office of Georges Vanier. Mr. Michener was the first Canadian Governor General to undertake state visits abroad, which were very successful. He was known for promoting physical fitness, and at the age of 80 climbed to the top of the mountain in Alberta that was named in his honour.

Shapour Bakhtiar, 77. Prime Minister of Iran, 1979. Dr. Bakhtiar, a member of the National Front and an opponent of the excesses of Shah Reza Pahlevi, served as Prime Minister from January 4-February 11, 1979 during the last days of the Shah's regime. Dr. Bakhtiar declared Iran to be a republic and himself as the country's first President just before fleeing to exile in France upon the return to Iran and accession to power of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. The Islamic Republic of Iran issued a death sentence for Mr. Bakhtiar and finally carried it out; Dr. Bakhtiar and his secretary Soroush Katibeh were stabbed to death by three assassins in Dr. Bakhtiar's home in the Paris suburb of Suresnes.

Harry Reasoner, 68. U.S. journalist. Mr. Reasoner began his broadcasting career with CBS in 1948; he was one of the founders of the television newsmagazine program 60 Minutes in 1968. Mr. Reasoner moved to ABC in 1970, co-hosting the ABC Evening News until 1978, when he rejoined CBS and 60 Minutes. He made his last broadcast on May 19, 1991 and died in hospital reportedly after suffering a blood clot in a fall at his home. Mr. Reasoner won three Emmy Awards and a George Foster Peabody Award.

Environment
Canadian Environment Minister Jean Charest announced the creation of Aulavik National Park on Banks Island in the Northwest Territories.

Technology
Tim Berners-Lee released files describing his idea for the World Wide Web.

Politics and government
Ontario Premier Bob Rae recognized First Nations' right to self government, announcing that Ontario would devolve the following powers to each nation: policing; justice; medical care; education; and resources.

Takako Doi, chairman of the Social Democratic Party, became Japan's first female Speaker of the House of Representatives.

25 years ago
1996

Space
NASA announced that the ALH 84001 meteorite, thought to originate from Mars, contained evidence of primitive life forms.

War
Chechen rebels attacked Grozny and two other towns.

World events
Hundreds of Greek Cypriots tried to breach the buffer zone between themselves and rival Turks.

Politics and government
Catherine Callbeck, the first woman to be elected leader of a provincial government in Canada, announced her resignation as Premier of Prince Edward Island, pending the selection of a successor, after just 3½ years in office.

Labour
The Russian government ordered 10,000 striking miners in the Vladivostok region back to work; the miners had been on strike since July 15, demanding back pay.

Disasters
The death toll from an outbreak of food poisoning in Japan had reached 8, with 9,000 becoming ill since May. Everythng from meat to radish sprouts was suspected as the cause.

20 years ago
2001

Died on this date
Wilhelm Mohnke, 90. German military officer. SS-Brigadeführer Mohnke joined the Nazi Party in 1931, and was one of the original members of the SS-Stabswache (Staff Guard) "Berlin" formed in March 1933. He commanded a regiments in the Battle for Caen (1944); in the Battle of Berlin (1945), he commanded the Kampfgruppe Mohnke and was charged with defending the Berlin government district, including the Reich Chancellery and the Reichstag. SS-Brigadeführer Mohnke was investigated after the war for war crimes, including allegations that he had been responsible for the murder of prisoners of war, but he was never charged. He dealt in small trucks and trailers after the war.

Jorge Amado, 88. Brazilian author. Mr. Amado was a modernist novelist whose career spanned more than 60 years, and included works such as Dona Flor e Seus Dois Maridos (Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands) (1966). He was a Communist when he was a Federal Deputy for São Paulo (1947-1951), but spent most of his time in office in exile in France after the party was banned in Brazil. Mr. Amado returned to Brazil in 1954, and left the Communist Party a year later. He chaired the Brazilian Academy of Letters from 1961 until his death, four days before his 89th birthday.

Larry Adler, 87. U.S. musician. Mr. Adler was one of the foremost harmonica players in history, with a career spanning 70 years. Composers such as Ralph Vaughan Williams, Arthur Benjamin, Darius Milhaud, Cyril Scott, and Malcolm Arnold wrote pieces for him.

Dorothy Tutin, 71. U.K. actress. Dame Dorothy appeared in several films and television programs, but was best known for her 50-year career on stage, winning two Olivier Awards and two Evening Standard Awards for Best Actress. She died of leukemia.

Abominations
28 mental patients illegally chained to their beds burned to death in a fire at an Islamic institution in Erwadi, Tamil Nadu, India.

Baseball
Winning pitcher Everett Stull allowed 1 hit in 6 innings and was named the game's Most Valuable Player as the Milwaukee Brewers beat the Florida Marlins 6-2 in the annual Hall of Fame Game at Doubleday Field in Cooperstown, New York.

10 years ago
2011

War
Insurgents shot down a U.S. military helicopter in Afghanistan, killing 30 Americans, most of them belonging to the elite Navy commando unit that had allegedly slain Osama bin Laden; seven Afghan commandos also died.

Protest
Violence erupted in London amid anger over the fatal police shooting of a 29-year-old father of four; rioting and looting spread to other parts of the city and other English cities over the next several days, leaving five dead.

Football
CFL
Hamilton (3-3) 20 @ Calgary (4-2) 32