600 years ago
1421
Born on this date
Henry VI. King of England, 1422-1461, 1470-1471. Henry VI acceded to the throne as an infant upon the death of his father Henry V, and was declared fit to rule in 1437. As a result of the Treaty of Troyes, he was regarded as King Henri II of France, but his claim to the French throne was disputed. Henry VI married Margaret of Anjou, niece of King Charles VII of France, in 1445; King Henry frequently suffered from mental instability, and Queen Margaret acted as the power behind the throne. King Henry VI inherited the Hundred Years' War, and his reign saw the gradual loss of English lands in France. His cousin Richard, Duke of York opposed him; in 1465, Richard's son Edward's forces captured King Henry, imprisoned him in the Tower of London, and deposed him, ruling as King Edward IV. King Henry VI regained the throne in 1470, but Edward IV was restored to the throne in April 1471, killing King Henry's only son Edward of Westminster in the Battle of Tewkesbury. Henry VI was imprisoned again, and died in the Tower of London on May 21, 1471 at the age of 49, possibly killed on the orders of King Edward IV.
190 years ago
1831
Politics and government
U.S. President Andrew Jackson delivered his third annual State of the Union message to Congress. Subjects included agriculture and foreign relations.
140 years ago
1881
Politics and government
U.S. President Chester Arthur delivered his first annual State of the Union message to Congress. Subjects included foreign relations and the economy.
125 years ago
1896
Born on this date
Ira Gershwin. U.S. songwriter. Mr. Gershwin, born Israel Gershowitz, wrote lyrics to songs with music by his brother George. His songs included I Got Rhythm; The Man I Love; and Someone to Watch Over Me. After George died in 1937, Ira teamed up with such composers as Kurt Weill, Jerome Kern, and Harold Arlen. He died on August 17, 1983 at the age of 86.
120 years ago
1901
Born on this date
Georgy Malenkov. Chairman of the Council of Ministers (Premier) of the U.S.S.R., 1953-1955. Mr. Malenkov joined the Communist Party in 1920 and became Soviet Premier after the death of Josef Stalin in 1953, but was forced out of office by Nikita Khrushchev in February 1955. He failed in a palace coup attempt against Mr. Khrushchev in 1957, was exiled to Kazakhstan, and expelled from the party in 1961. Mr. Malenkov eventually returned to Moscow and maintained a low profile until his death on January 14, 1988 at the age of 86.
110 years ago
1911
Crime
A Calgary judge convicted two dairy delivery men for theft after they removed a rival firm's milk bottles from doorsteps and milk chutes in order to get annoyed customers to switch companies.
100 years ago
1921
Born on this date
Otto Graham. U.S. football player and coach. Mr. Graham played quarterback at Northwestern University (1941-1943) and the North Carolina Pre-Flight Cloudbusters (1944), while also playing basketball and baseball. He began his professional athletic career with the Rochester Royals of the National Basketball League (1945-46), helping them win the NBL title. Mr. Graham signed a contract with the Cleveland Browns of the new All-America Football Conference in 1945, but the AAFC didn't begin play until 1946. He led the Browns to four straight AAFC championships (1946-1949), and continued his success when the Browns joined the National Football League in 1950. Mr. Graham helped the Browns win NFL championships in 1950, 1954, and 1955, retiring after the 1955 championship game. He retired after a 10-year professional career, leading the Browns to the league championship game every year, winning seven times. Mr. Graham was head coach of the Coast Guard Bears (1959-1965, 1974-1975), compiling a record of 44-32-1; his best season was 1963, when they were 8-1, finishing first in the New England Football Conference and playing in the Tangerine Bowl. He also coached the College All-Stars in 10 annual games against the defending NFL champions. Mr. Graham was head coach of the Washington Redskins (1966-1968), but had considerably less success, being fired after compiling a record of 17-22-3. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1956 and the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1965. Mr. Graham died of a heart aneurysm on December 17, 2003, 11 days after his 82nd birthday, after suffering from various health problems for several years.
Piero Piccioni. Italian musician and composer. Mr. Piccioni, a lawyer by trade, was a pianist and organist who led a jazz band and composed scores for more than 300 movies, television and radio programs, and ballets. He died on July 23, 2004 at the age of 82.
Died on this date
Said Halim Pasha, 56-57. Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire, 1913-1917. Said Halim Pasha was the grandson of Muhammad Ali Pasha, widely regarded as the founder of modern Egypt. Said Halim Pasha succeeded Mahmud Shevket Pasha following his assassination, and was both Grand Vizier and Foreign Minister. He signed the Ottoman-German Alliance in 1914 and signed deportation orders for the Armenian population, claiming that reports of arrests and deportations were being greatly exaggerated. Said Halim Pasha lost his position as Foreign Minister in 1915, and was forced out as Grand Vizier in 1917 amidst clashes with the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP). His signature on the Ottoman-German Alliance led to accusations of treason during courts-martial after World War I. Said Halim Pasha was exiled to a prison in Malta, but was acquitted in 1921 and released. He moved to Sicily, and was in Rome when he was assassinated by Arshavir Shirakian, an agent of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, for his role in the Armenian genocide.
War
The Anglo-Irish Treaty was signed in London by British and Irish representatives, officially ending the Irish War of Independence.
On the radio
Toronto radio station CHCB broadcast the federal election results in co-operation with The Toronto Daily Star. The experimental Marconi station apparently went off the air forever five months later.
Politics and government
The Liberal Party, led by W.L. Mackenzie King, captured 118 of 235 House of Commons seats--a bare majority--in the Canadian federal election. The Progressive Party, led by T.A. Crerar, won 58 seats in its first federal campaign. The governing Conservatives--formally known as the National Liberal and Conservative Party, a holdover from the Unionist government of World War I--won just 49 seats, down from 153 in 1917. Prime Minister Arthur Meighen, a Conservative, was defeated in his bid for re-election in his Manitoba riding of Portage La Prairie. The Labour Party, led by J.S. Woodsworth, won 3 seats. The remaining representation in the House of Commons was: Independent--2; United Farmers of Alberta--2; United Farmers of Ontario--1; Independent Conservative--1; Independent Progressive--1. It was the first federal election in which the majority of women in Canada were allowed to vote, and Progressive candidate Agnes Macphail became the first woman elected to the House of Commons, representing the Ontario riding of Grey-Southeast. The new government officially took office on December 29, 1921.
U.S. President Warren G. Harding delivered his first annual State of the Union address to Congress. Subjects included relations among the various branches of government; tariffs; and relations between capital and labour.
90 years ago
1931
Football
NFL
Green Bay (12-2) 6 @ Chicago Bears (8-4) 7
New York (6-6-1) 19 @ Brooklyn (2-12) 6
80 years ago
1941
Hit parade
#1 single in the U.S.A. (Billboard): Chattanooga Choo Choo--Glenn Miller and his Orchestra (Vocal refrain by Tex Beneke and the Four Modernaires) (2nd week at #1)
Movies
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Corp. suspended the showing of Two-Faced Woman, which had opened in theatres on November 30, after December 16, 1941, pending revision of the film. The movie had been banned in Providence and Boston, and authorities in Chicago, Milwaukee, and Omaha had ordered cuts to be made in the film before it could play in those cities. Two-Faced Woman had also been condemned by the Catholic Legion of Decency and New York Roman Catholic Archbishop Francis Spellman.
War
The United Kingdom announced at 1 A.M. that a state of war with Finland, Hungary and Romania existed after those three countries had rejected a British ultimatum to halt their attacks on Russia. British Security Co-ordination (BSC) head William Stephenson opened Special Training School 103--better known as Camp X--near Whitby and Oshawa, Ontario, for the purpose of training Allied Secret Agents for the war. General Georgy Zhukov led Soviet troops in a strike with 100 divisions in a counterattack against the German force moving on Moscow.
Diplomacy
U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt sent a personal message to Emperor Hirohito of Japan appealing for peace, amid reports that Japanese troops were sailing toward Thailand.
Defense
U.S. Navy authorities in the Panama Canal Zone reported that they were investigating rumours that Axis raiders disguised as Japanese merchant ships were using Port Callao, Peru as a base.
The U.S. Navy ordered six Finnish ships in American ports put under protective custody.
U.S. Navy Secretary Frank Knox said in his annual report that the Navy was "second to none."
Transportation
Two Pan Am Airways Clippers left Miami with a total of 30 passengers to inaugurate air service to Africa.
Labour
The United Brotherhood of Welders, Cutters and Helpers threatened to call a nationwide strike of its 75,000 members unless U.S. President Roosevelt halted alleged American Federation of Labor discrimination against the union, which was seeking autonomy.
Track and field
NCAA
The Big Ten athletic conference in Chicago abolished the javelin event as harmful because it frequently caused back and shoulder injuries among contestants.
75 years ago
1946
Radio
Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan station CHAB moved from 1220 to 800 kilohertz, its present home.
War
Chinese Communists notified U.S. mediator General George Marshall that they would note resume negotiations with the Nationalists until the dissolution of the "illegal" Constitutional Assembly in Nanking.
The Council of Foreign Ministers completed negotiation in New York on all questions relating to the Italian, Romanian, Hungarian, and Finnish peace treaties, and decided to present the treaties for signature in early February 1947.
Politics and government
A subcommittee of the United Nations Trusteeship Council overrode Soviet objections and assigned control of Western Samoa to New Zealand; Rwanda-Urundi to Belgium; New Guinea to Australia; Tanganyika and the British Cameroons to the United Kingdom; and French Togoland and the French Cameroons to France.
Soviet military authorities forbade meetings of the Berlin Council of Aldermen, claiming that it must first be approved by all Allied commanders.
A British cabinet conference on India broke down in London as Muslim League leader Mohammed Ali Jinnah refused to change his stand on the Muslim boycott of the forthcoming Indian Constituent Assembly.
Economics and finance
The Yugoslavian National Assembly approved a law nationalizing 42 industries, with owners paid in state bonds.
70 years ago
1951
Died on this date
Harold Ross, 59. U.S. journalist. Mr. Ross wrote for various newspapers before he and yeast heir Raoul Fleischmann co-founded The New Yorker in 1925. Mr. Ross served as the magazine's editor-in-chief until his death from heart failure while undergoing surgery to remove a lung.
Movies
Argentina lifted a four-year ban on Soviet-made films.
War
Communist negotiators at Panmunjom refused to consider an exchange of prisoners until their truce-enforcement plan was accepted.
Defense
U.K. Prime Minister Winston Churchill told the House of Commons that Britain could not complete its $13.16-billion defense program on schedule in 1953, but would "get on as fast as we can."
Diplomacy
The United Nations General Assembly elected Pakistan and Chile to replace India and Ecuador as Security Council members for 1952-53.
Protest
The Egyptian government banned all public demonstrations to minimize violence resulting from the Suez clashes with British forces.
A five-hour battle between Iranian Communists and Nationalist Party youths in Tehran left 5 people dead and 200 injured.
Politics and government
Venezuelan security forces arrested 12 members of the outlawed Democratic Action Party, seizing bombs and shutting down a radio station in Maracaibo.
U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy (Republican--Wisconsin) charged that a Senate Elections subcommittee was spending "tens of thousands of dollars" to investigate his background. The subcommittee was considering demands by Sen. William Benton (Democrat--Connecticut) that Sen. McCarthy be ousted from the Senate.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Dean Rusk resigned in order to succeed Chester Barnard as president of the Rockefeller Foundation when the latter retired in 1952.
Boxing
World heavyweight champion Jersey Joe Walcott was awarded the Edward J. Neil Plaque in New York as Boxer of the Year.
60 years ago
1961
At the movies
El Cid, directed by Anthony Mann, and starring Charlton Heston and Sophia Loren, received its premiere screening at the Metropole Theatre, Victoria, London.
Died on this date
Frantz Fanon, 36. Martinique-born French psychiatrist and philosopher. Dr. Fanon grew up in Martinique when it was ruled by Vichy French sailors who collaborated with the Nazis and abused the local population; his experiences influenced his subsequent ideas. He practiced psychiatry in colonial Algeria in the 1950s, and formulated a model for community psychology, believing that many mental-health patients would do better if they were integrated into their family and community instead of being treated with institutionalized care. Dr. Fanon increasingly turned against French colonial rule; he was expelled from Algeria and moved to Tunis, where he joined the Front de libération nationale (National Liberation Front) (FLN), supporting the use of violence in Algeria's struggle for independence from France. He developed leukemia, and died while being treated at a National Institutes of Health facility in Bethesda, Maryland, having been brought to the United States by the Central Intelligence Agency. Dr. Fanon's ideas, expressed in books such as Peau noire, masques blancs (Black Skin, White Masks) (1952) and Les Damnés de la Terre (The Wretched of the Earth) (1961) have inspired revolutionary movements throughout the world.
50 years ago
1971
Hit parade
#1 single in Australia (Kent Music Report): Maggie May--Rod Stewart (2nd week at #1)
#1 single in Japan (Oricon Singles Chart): Ame no Midōsuji--Ouyang Fei Fei (5th week at #1)
#1 single in Spain (PROMUSICAE): Mammy Blue--Pop-Tops (7th week at #1)
Football
NFL
Kansas City (8-3-1) 26 @ San Francisco (7-5) 17
40 years ago
1981
Hit parade
#1 single in New Zealand (RIANZ): Physical--Olivia Newton-John
#1 single in Switzerland: Physical--Olivia Newton-John (2nd week at #1)
30 years ago
1991
Died on this date
Richard Stone, 78. U.K. economist. Sir Richard was awarded the 1984 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences "for having made fundamental contributions to the development of systems of national accounts and hence greatly improved the basis for empirical economic analysis."
War
In Croatia, forces of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) bombarded Dubrovnik after laying siege to the city for seven months.
25 years ago
1996
Hit parade
#1 single in Sweden (Topplistan): Breathe--The Prodigy (3rd week at #1)
#1 single in Ireland (IRMA): Breathe--The Prodigy
Died on this date
Pete Rozelle, 70. U.S. football executive. Alvin Ray Rozelle worked in publicity with the University of San Francisco and the Los Angeles Rams before becoming the Rams' general manager in 1957. The team had little success on the field, but became financially successful. Three months after the death of Bert Bell, Mr. Rozelle was the surprise choice to become the National Football League's new commissioner. Mr. Rozelle held the position until November 1989, and was largely responsible for the NFL becoming one of the most successful businesses in the United States. He promoted policies of revenue-sharing, achieved a merger with the rival American Football League, and proposed Monday Night Football, which has been a television staple since 1970. Mr. Rozelle died of brain cancer; he was inducted into the Professional Football Hall of Fame in 1985, while still serving as commissioner.
Radio
Radio-Canada International announced that it would have to stop broadcasting on March 31, 1997 unless a new source of funds coulf be found. A campaign to save RCI was temporarily successful; it was backed by Heritage Minister Sheila Copps, who said that Canada's voice to the world must not die.
20 years ago
2001
Died on this date
Charles McClendon, 78. U.S. football player and coach. Mr. McClendon played at the University of Kentucky (1949-1950) and was an assistant coach for ten years--nine at Louisiana State University (1953-1961) before serving as head coach at LSU (1962-1979), compiling a record of 137-59-7, leading the Tigers into 13 bowl games, winning seven. He was president (1979) and executive director (1982-1994) of the American Football Coaches Association, and was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1986.
Canadiana
The province of Newfoundland was renamed Newfoundland and Labrador by the Constitution Amendment 2001.
10 years ago
2011
Died on this date
Dobie Gray, 71. U.S. singer-songwriter. Mr. Gray, born Lawrence Darrow Brown, had a career spanning more than 50 years in soul, rhythm and blues, pop, and country music. His best known composition was The "In" Crowd (1965), which reached #13 on the Billboard Hot 100 pop singles chart and #11 on the R&B chart. Mr. Gray's biggest hit was Drift Away (1973), which reached #5 on the Billboard Hot 100. He died of complications from cancer surgery.
Barbara Orbison, 60. German-born U.S. record producer. Mrs. Orbison was 17 when she met singer Roy Orbison, 32, who was a widower with three sons, two of whom died in a fire shortly after they met. The couple married in March 1969 and had two sons of their own. Mrs. Orbison managed her husband's career before his death on December 6, 1988, and afterward, overseeing posthumous releases. She died of pancreatic cancer, 23 years to the day since the death of her husband.
Frozen In Time: The Great Blizzard of 1888
-
PODCAST The story of the devastating snowstorm that changed New York City
forever. This year marks the 130th anniversary of one of the worst storms
to ev...
2 days ago
