February 8, 2014

175 years ago
1839

War
U.S. and New Brunwick loggers clashed in the Aroostook lumber war, sometimes called "the Pork and Beans War," in the disputed territory of Madawaska, over an undefined boundary with Maine along the St. Croix River. Maine and New Brunswick called out the militia, Nova Scotia passed an appropriation for defense, and British troops were called from Halifax to guard the border, while the U.S. Congress voted $10 million to raise a force of 50,000 men if needed. On March 25, Lieutenant-Governor Sir John Harvey and General Winfield Scott arranged a temporary truce, to be settled by international arbitration. The border was eventually settled by the Webster-Ashburton Treaty signed on August 9, 1842.

120 years ago
1894

Born on this date
King Vidor. U.S. film director. Mr. Vidor directed such movies as The Big Parade (1925); The Crowd (1928); Show People (1928); Hallelujah! (1929); Street Scene (1931); The Champ (1931); Our Daily Bread (1934); The Citadel (1938); Duel in the Sun (1946); The Fountainhead (1949); War and Peace (1956); and Solomon and Sheba (1959). He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director five times, but never won. Mr. Vidor was finally awarded an honourary Oscar in 1979; he died on November 1, 1982 at the age of 88.

110 years ago
1904

War
The Russo-Japanese War began with a surprise torpedo attack by Japanese destroyers against the Russian Pacific Fleet based at Port Arthur, Manchuria.

90 years ago
1924

Died on this date
Gee Jon, 29 (?). Chinese-born U.S. criminal. Mr. Jon, a member of the Hip Sing Tong gang in San Francisco, was sentenced to death for the murder of an elderly member of another gang in Nevada, and was incarcerated at the Nevada State Prison in Carson City. Prison officials attempted to pump poison gas into Mr. Jon's cell while he slept, but the attempt was unsuccessful. A makeshift gas chamber was set up in the prison's butcher shop, and at 9:40 A.M. Mr. Jon was strapped into a chair, and four pounds of hydrocyanic acid was sprayed into the chamber. Mr. Jon appeared to lose consciousness after five seconds, but it took 10 minutes for his body to become motionless. Mr. Jon was the first person in the United States to be executed in a gas chamber.

70 years ago
1944

War
The United Kingdom and the French Committee of National Liberation agreed to mutual military assistance for the duration of World War II. Sergeant Tommy Prince of the 1st Canadian Special Service Battalion successfully posed as an Italian farmer tending his crops while fixing Army communication lines as Germans troops looked on. Soviet forces in Ukraine took the manganese centre of Nikopol on the Dnieper River bend, completing a four-day offensive that cleared the enemy from a 700-mile stretch of the east bank of the Dnieper River. Yugoslavian partisans reported that their forces had been driven from Perusic in a growing battle for vital communication lines in western Croatia. Australian and American troops linked up 14 miles east of Saidor, ending an 18-week campaign for control of the Hunon Peninsula on New Guinea. The Argentine government announced the arrest of German military attache General Friedrich Wolf and Japanese naval attache Rear Admiral Katsumi Yukishita for directing espionage activity.

Politics and government
Massachusetts Governor Leverett Saltonstall appointed Sinclair Weeks to fill the U.S. Senate vacancy caused by the resignation of Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. on February 4 to enter the armed forces.

The U.S. Senate passed both the Green-Lucas and Eastland-Rankin soldier vote bills and sent the matter to conference.

Religion
Tenzin Gyatso, 7, was installed as the 10th Panchen Lama, Buddhist spiritual leader of Tibet, in ceremonies at Hsunhwa, Chingchai Province.

Economics and finance
The United Kingdom and the French Committee of National Liberation agreed to the exchange rate at 200 francs to a pound.

The U.S.A. discontinued its activities in the development of Brazilian rubber production.

50 years ago
1964

Hit parade
#1 single in Australia (Kent Music Report): I Want to Hold Your Hand--The Beatles (7th week at #1)

#1 single in France: Si Je Chante--Sylvie Vartan (5th week at #1)

#1 single in Italy (FIMI): Please Please Me--The Beatles

#1 single in West Germany (Media Control): Das kannst du mir nicht verbieten--Bernd Spier (3rd week at #1)

#1 single in the U.K. (New Musical Express): Needles and Pins--The Searchers (2nd week at #1)

#1 single in the U.S.A. (Billboard): I Want to Hold Your Hand--The Beatles (2nd week at #1)

U.S.A. Top 10 (Cash Box)
1 I Want to Hold Your Hand--The Beatles (3rd week at #1)
2 You Don't Own Me--Lesley Gore
3 Out of Limits--The Marketts
4 Hey Little Cobra--The Rip Chords
5 There! I've Said it Again--Bobby Vinton
6 Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um--Major Lance
7 She Loves You--The Beatles
8 Anyone Who Had a Heart--Dionne Warwick
9 For You--Rick Nelson
10 Louie Louie--The Kingsmen
--[Paul Revere and the Raiders]

Singles entering the chart were Live Wire by Martha and the Vandellas (#70); From Me to You by the Beatles (#74); So Far Away by Hank Jacobs (#75); Miller's Cave by Bobby Bare (#76); Hi-Heel Sneakers by Tommy Tucker (#79); My Bonnie by the Beatles with Tony Sheridan (#80); Have You Ever Been Lonely (Have You Ever Been Blue) by the Caravelles (#88); Where Did I Go Wrong by Dee Dee Sharp (#89); I Didn't Know What Time it Was by the Crampton Sisters (#92); Rip Van Winkle by the Devotions (#95); Love with the Proper Stranger by Jack Jones (#99); and I Saw Her Standing There by the Beatles (#100). My Bonnie, with Tony Sheridan singing the lead vocal, was recorded in 1962, when Pete Best was still the Beatles' drummer. Love with the Proper Stranger was the title song from the movie. I Saw Her Standing There was the B-side of I Want to Hold Your Hand.

40 years ago
1974

Hit parade
#1 single in New Zealand: Sorrow--David Bowie (3rd week at #1)

#1 single in West Germany (Media Control): I'd Love You to Want Me--Lobo (13th week at #1)

Space
The Skylab 3 crew of Jerry Carr, Bill Pogue, and Ed Gibson returned to Earth after a record stay in space of 84 days. It was the last of the three Skylab missions, and the Skylab space station remained vacant until it crashed off the coast of Australia on July 11, 1979.

Politics and government
Upper Voltan President and Prime Minister General Sangoule Lamizana dissolved the Assembly and named a new cabinet composed mostly of military personnel.

Scandal
U.S. Navy Yeoman First Class Charles Radford, accused of having leaked National Security Council documents to the press in 1971, told The New York Times that he had stolen hundreds of NSC documents at the behest of Admirals Rembrandt Robinson and Robert Welander, both former liaison officers between the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the NSC. The documents had subsequently been forwarded to the office of Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Thomas Moorer.

Transportation
Edmonton city council recommended the creation of an inner-city "ring road" to handle truck traffic efficiently.

30 years ago
1984

Space
The U.S.S.R. launched three cosmonauts into space aboard a Soyuz-10 spacecraft. The U.S.A. had launched a five-member crew into orbit aboard the space shuttle Challenger five days earlier on mission STS-41-B, and the eight people in space at one time was a record.

War
U.S. ships began launching artillery barrages against Syrian positions in Lebanon. U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Tip O'Neill (Democrat--Massachusetts) said that the action went beyond the war powers authorized in a congressional resolution on Lebanon adopted in October 1983. Walid Jumblat, leader of Lebanon's Druze population, warned that if the shelling of Druze villages continued, his forces would retaliate against U.S. diplomats and other civilians.

Economics and finance
A bipartisan congressional delegation met with White House officials to seek ways to reduce U.S. budget deficits.

The Dow-Jones industrial average slipped to 1,156, a drop of 10% in five weeks.

25 years ago
1989

Hit parade
#1 single in Finland (Musiikkituottajat – IFPI Finland): Like a Yo-Yo--Sabrina

#1 single in Sweden (Topplistan): Buffalo Stance--Neneh Cherry

On television tonight
The Wonder Years, on ABC
Tonight's episode: Coda

Disasters
Independent Air Flight 1851, a chartered Boeing 707 jetliner carrying Italian tourists to the Dominican Republic, crashed into a fog-shrouded mountain while on approach to Santa Maria Airport in the Azores, killing all 137 passengers and 7 crew members aboard.

20 years ago
1994

Died on this date
Raymond Scott, 85. U.S. composer and bandleader. Mr. Scott, born Harry Warnow, was a pioneer of electronic music and wrote pieces that have been used in countless cartoons. His compositions included The Toy Trumpet and In an Eighteenth-Century Drawing Room.

Scandal
U.S. Navy Judge Captain William Vest dismissed charges against three officers in the Tailhook scandal and held that Chief of Naval Operations Frank Kelso had used "unlawful command influence" to "manipulate" the investigation "in a manner designed to shield his personal involvement." The scandal included accusations of sexual assault against female Navy personnel at the Tailhook convention in Las Vegas in 1991.

The United States Olympic Committee announced that it would hold a hearing on whether U.S. women's figure skating champion Tonya Harding should be allowed to compete in the Winter Olympic Games to be held in Lillehammer, Norway later in the month. Her ex-husband, Jeff Gillooly, had stated on February 1 that she had helped to plan the January 6 assault on Nancy Kerrigan, defending national champion and Ms. Harding's chief rival for the title. Miss Kerrigan had been clubbed on the leg, injuring her enough to prevent her from competing in the national championships.

Economics and finance
The Canadian government of Prime Minister Jean Chretien slashed tobacco taxes to reduce rampant cigarette smuggling.

10 years ago
2004

Abominations
U.S. President George W. Bush, interviewed on the NBC television program Meet the Press, said that although inspectors had not found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, the U.S. war in Iraq was justified because Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein had the ability to produce such weapons.

Politics and government
Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga dissolved parliament and called elections for April 2.