July 3, 2014

1,690 years ago
324

War
In a battle between emperors of the Western and Eastern Roman Empire, Western forces commanded by Constantine defeated Eastern forces of Licinius in the Battle of Adrianople in what is now Turkey.

260 years ago
1754

War
In the French and Indian War, British colonial forces commanded by Colonel George Washington surrendered Fort Necessity, Pennsylvania to French and Indian forces commanded by Louis Coulon de Villiers.

175 years ago
1839

Education
The first state normal school in the United States, the forerunner to today's Framingham State College, opened in Lexington, Massachusetts with three students.

170 years ago
1844

Environment
The last pair of Great Auks was killed on Eldey, off the coast of Iceland.

130 years ago
1884

Economics and finance
Dow Jones and Company published its first stock average.

125 years ago
1889

Born on this date
Richard Cramer. U.S. actor. Mr. Cramer appeared in low-budget Western movies and comedies with Laurel and Hardy and others. He died on August 9, 1960 at the age of 71.

110 years ago
1904

Transportation
The Ocean passenger train made its first run between Montreal and Halifax. It was the longest running train in Canada, operating continuously over same 875-mile route.

90 years ago
1924

Economics and finance
In Ottawa, Canada signed a trade agreement with Belgium.

80 years ago
1934

Baseball
Roy Johnson’s two-run home run in the top of the 11th inning provided the winning margin as the Boston Red Sox ended the New York Yankees’ 8-game winning streak with a 10-9 win at Yankee Stadium.

75 years ago
1939

Baseball
Bob Feller improved his record for the season to 13-3 and Ben Chapman tied a major league single-game record with 3 triples to lead the Cleveland Indians to a 4-2 win over the Detroit Tigers before 15,474 fans at Briggs Stadium in Detroit.

70 years ago
1944

On the radio
The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce, on MBS
Tonight's episode: The Amateur Mendicant Society

Weather
The temperature in Goose Bay reached 100 F., Labrador's hottest day on record.

War
U.S. troops in France opened a new drive southward along a 30-mile front below the base of the Cherbourg Peninsula. Soviet units in Finland drove 8 miles across the pre-1940 border to take Varpaselkae. French and American troops in Italy captured Siena, 31 miles south of Florence.

Law
U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a bill withdrawing citizenship of disloyal Japanese-Americans after the Attorney General's office said the law was needed to deal with them under the enemy alien statutes.

Economics and finance
The United States Treasury Department reported that in the fiscal year ending June 30, 1944, war expenditures were $87 billion, and total national debt was over $201 billion.

Labour
Alabama's labor department told the U.S. National War Labor Board that it would not sanction a board order that Ingalls Iron Works suspend employees who were delinquent in union dues because to do so would violate an Alabama state law.

60 years ago
1954

Hit Parade
#1 single in Australia (Kent Music Report): Young at Heart--Frank Sinatra

#1 singles in the U.S.A. (Billboard): Little Things Mean a Lot--Kitty Kallen (Best Seller--5th week at #1; Disc Jockey--4th week at #1; Jukebox--2nd week at #1)

U.S.A. Top 10 (Cash Box)
1 Little Things Mean a Lot--Kitty Kallen
2 Three Coins in the Fountain--The Four Aces
--Frank Sinatra
3 Hernando's Hideaway--Archie Bleyer
--[Johnnie Ray]
4 The Happy Wanderer--Frank Weir and his Orchestra
--Henri Rene's Musette
5 If You Love Me (Really Love Me)--Kay Starr
--Vera Lynn
6 Wanted--Perry Como
7 I Understand Just How You Feel--The Four Tunes
--June Valli
8 I Get So Lonely (When I Dream About You)--The Four Knights
9 The Little Shoemaker--The Gaylords
--Hugo Winterhalter and his Orchestra
10 Isle of Capri--Jackie Lee and his Orchestra
--The Gaylords

Singles entering the chart were Frank Sinatra's version of Three Coins in the Fountain; Sh-Boom, with versions by the Chords; and the Crew-Cuts (#26); Hey There by Rosemary Clooney (#30); Leave it to Your Heart by the Ames Brothers (#31); (We’re Gonna) Rock Around the Clock by Bill Haley and his Comets (#36); In the Chapel in the Moonlight by Kitty Kallen (#39); Cornbelt Symphony by Bing and Gary Crosby (#44); I'm a Fool to Care by Les Paul and Mary Ford (#45); The Magic Tango by Hugo Winterhalter and his Orchestra (#46); and Every Day by Joni James (#48). Hey There was a version of a song from the Broadway musical The Pajama Game (1954). The Magic Tango was the B-side of The Little Shoemaker.

Golf
At Salem Country Club in Peabody, Massachusetts, Babe Didrikson Zaharias won the U.S. Women's Open for the third time.

50 years ago
1964

Hit parade
#1 single in Ireland (IRMA): Bless You--Brendan Bowyer

Edmonton's Top 10 (CJCA)
1 Thank You Girl--The Beatles (3rd week at #1)
2 As Long as I'm Sure of You--Bobby Curtola
3 All My Loving--The Beatles
4 Lucky Star--Rick Nelson
5 A World Without Love--Peter and Gordon
6 My Boy Lollipop--Millie Small
7 Don't Let the Sun Catch You Crying--Gerry and the Pacemakers
8 Memphis--Johnny Rivers
9 Can't You See that She's Mine--The Dave Clark Five
10 C'mon Everybody--Elvis Presley
Pick hit of the week: Over My Shoulder--Barry Allen
New this week: Handy Man--Del Shannon
Remember When--Dick & Dee Dee
A Taste of Honey--Tony Bennett
Sugar Lump--Sonny James
Sugar Lips--Al Hirt
Tell Me (You're Coming Back)--The Rolling Stones

The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, on CBS
Tonight's episode: Body in the Barn, starring Lillian Gish, Maggie McNamara, Peter Lind Hayes, and Kent Smith

This was the last episode of the season, and the last episode to be broadcast on CBS. The series moved to NBC for the 1964-65 season.

Died on this date
A. Balmer Watt, 87. Canadian journalist. Mr. Watt joined The Edmonton Journal in 1912 as an associate editor, and was the newspaper's editor from 1921-1945. When the provincial Social Credit government of Premier William Aberhart passed the Accurate News and Information Act, which required newspapers to print the government's position on various issues, Mr. Watt opposed it, which led to the Journal receiving the first Pulitzer Prize Special Citation for Journalism in 1938 "for its editorial leadership in defense of freedom of the press in the Province of Alberta, Canada."

Crime
Four members of a splinter group of the Quebec terrorist organization Front de Liberation du Quebec were given eight-year prison sentences for stealing weapons from two Quebec armouries.

40 years ago
1974

Hit parade
#1 single in Switzerland: Seasons in the Sun--Terry Jacks (2nd week at #1)

Politics and government
Five days after the 4th Division of the Ethiopian army had taken virtual control of Addis Ababa, Emperor Haile Selassie acceded to five proposals put forth by the military, including amnesty for political prisoners and immediate institution of constitutional reforms.

Diplomacy
Following five days of talks in Moscow, U.S. President Richard Nixon and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev signed a number of limited nuclear agreements. The documents fell short of the hoped-for breakthrough on a permanent agreement to limit offensive nuclear weapons. The two leaders committed their countries to negotiating a new interim accord covering both qualitative and quantitative limitations on strategic nuclear weapons to 1985. They also negotiated accords on limiting underground tests of nuclear weapons and committing each nation to a single area for the deployment of antiballistic missiles.

At the Law of the Sea conference in Caracas, Canadian Environment Minister Jack Davis announced that Canada would extend its jurisdiction to a 200-mile limit--a dramatic increase from the previous 12-mile limit--and called for restriction of deep-sea salmon fishing.

Football
CFL
Pre-season
Saskatchewan (0-0-1) 25 @ Toronto (0-0-1) 25
Ottawa (2-0) 29 @ Calgary (0-1) 20

Baseball
Gaylord Perry pitched a complete game to win his 15th straight decision as the Cleveland Indians defeated the Milwaukee Brewers 4-2 before 16,938 fans at County Stadium in Milwaukee. Losing pitcher Jim Colborn also went the distance.

30 years ago
1984

Hit parade
#1 single in Sweden (Topplistan): Big in Japan--Alphaville (6th week at #1)

Diplomacy
U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Secretary of State George Shultz concluded two days of meetings with Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin, and sought to reassure him that the United States had accepted the Soviet proposal to open space weapons talks in Vienna in September, and that no preconditions had been set.

25 years ago
1989

Hit parade
#1 single in Australia (Australian Music Report): Wind Beneath My Wings--Bette Midler (3rd week at #1)

#1 single in Spain (PROMUSICAE): The Look--Roxette (2nd week at #1)

Canada's Top 10 (RPM):
1 Good Thing--Fine Young Cannibals
2 Satisfied--Richard Marx
3 Pop Singer--John Mellencamp
4 Buffalo Stance--Neneh Cherry
5 Wind Beneath My Wings--Bette Midler
6 Express Yourself--Madonna
7 Cry--Waterfront
8 I Won't Back Down--Tom Petty
9 The Doctor--The Doobie Brothers
10 If You Don't Know Me by Now--Simply Red

Singles entering the chart were Let the Day Begin by the Cult (#70); Who Do You Give Your Love To by Michael Morales (#72); Stranger than Paradise by Sass Jordan (#75); Sacred Emotion by Donny Osmond (#83); All I Want is You by U2 (#87); Cold Hearted by Paula Abdul (#93); How Many Times by Erasure (#95); Soul Provider by Michael Bolton (#97); and My Paradise by the Outfield (#99).

Died on this date
Jim Backus, 76. U.S. actor. Mr. Backus provided the voice for the cartoon character Mr. Magoo, and played Thurston Howell III in the television comedy series Gilligan's Island (1964-1967). Perhaps his best-known movie role was as the father of Jim Stark, the character played by James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause (1955). Mr. Backus suffered from Parkinson's disease and agoraphobia in his later years.

Abominations
The United States Supreme Court voted 5-4 to uphold a Missouri law that restricted a woman’s right to have an abortion. The court majority, in the case of Webster v. Reproductive Health Services, upheld a Missouri law prohibiting public employees from performing abortions unless the mother’s life was endangered; barring abortions in public buildings; and requiring medical tests on any fetus more than 20 weeks old in order to determine if it could live outside the womb. Chief Justice William Rehnquist, writing for the majority, said that any restriction on abortion should be judged by whether it "permissibly furthers the state’s interest in protecting potential human life." The reader will notice that Mr. Rehnquist actually weakens the pro-life case with his use of the term "potential human life" to describe a fetus rather than "human life," which is what a fetus actually is. "Justice" Harry Blackmun, author of the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that made up a woman’s "right" to an abortion, wrote in dissent, "I fear for the future...The signs are evident and very ominous, and a chill wind blows." The reader will notice that "Justice" Blackmun’s argument is emotional rather than legal.

20 years ago
1994

Hit parade
#1 single in New Zealand: Love is All Around--Wet Wet Wet

#1 single in Austria (Ö3): Eins, zwei, polizei--Mo-Do

#1 single in Switzerland: Without You--Mariah Carey (3rd week at #1)

#1 single in the U.K. (Chart Information Network): Love is All Around--Wet Wet Wet (6th week at #1)

Died on this date
Lew Hoad, 59. Australian tennis player. Mr. Hoad was the #1-ranked male tennis player in the world in 1956, when he won the men's singles title in the Australian and French Championships and Wimbledon, and was runner-up in the U.S. Championships. He died of leukemia.

10 years ago
2004

Died on this date
Andrian Nikolayev, 74. U.S.S.R. cosmonaut. Major General Nikolayev flew alone on Vostok 3 in August 1962 and commanded the Soyuz 9 mission in June 1970. On Vostok 3, Maj. Gen. Nikolayev became the first person to do a television broadcast from space; he and Vostok 4 pilot Pavel Popovich conducted the first duel space flight. Soyuz 9 was in space for almost 18 days, setting what at the time was a space endurance record. On November 3, 1963, Maj. Gen. Nikolayev married Valentina Tereshkova, who had become the first woman in space five months earlier by flying the Vostok 6 mission. The couple had one daughter before divorcing in 1982.

Football
CFL
Montreal (3-0) 19 @ Toronto (1-2) 9