February 12, 2016

1,075 years ago
941

Died on this date
Wulfhelm. English clergyman. Wulfhelm was Roman Catholic Bishop of Wells (923-925) before serving as Archbishop of Canterbury from 926 until his death. He advised King Æthelstan on his law codes, and gave lands to monasteries. Wulfhelm was succeeded as Archbishop of Canterbury by Oda.

475 years ago
1541

South Americana
Santiago, Chile was founded by Pedro de Valdivia.

200 years ago
1816

Disasters
St. John's, Newfoundland was almost completely destroyed by a fire.

120 years ago
1896

Died on this date
Ambroise Thomas, 84. French composer. Mr. Thomas wrote orchestral, chamber, and ballet music, keyboard and vocal works, but was best known for his more than 20 operas, particularly Mignon (1866) and Hamlet (1868). He was appointed as a professor at the Conservatoire de Paris in 1856, and was its director from 1871 until his death.

75 years ago
1941

War
The German heavy cruiser Hipper sank seven British ships between the Azores and Portugal. Major General Erwin Rommel arrived in Tripoli to take command of the German-Italian front in Libya. General Grigori Zhukov was appointed chief of the Soviet Red Army's general staff and vice commissar of defense.

Diplomacy
Spanish dictator Generalissimo Francisco Franco and Italian Duce Benito Mussolini met in Bordighera, Italy.

Defense
The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved seven House of Representatives amendments to the Lend-Lease bill, and added an amendment requiring authorizations and appropriations from Congress before giving aid to foreign nations. Senator Gerald Nye (Republican--North Dakota) attacked 1940 Republican Party U.S. presidential candidate Wendell Willkie's support for Lend-Lease, while New York City District Attorney Thomas Dewey supported the bill's passage.

Oil
Standard Oil Company (New Jersey) announced that it had developed a new process for cracking petroleum, employing the fluid instead of the intermittent type of catalytic cracking, which simplified and lowered the cost of operation and improved the quality of the gasoline.

Labour
U.S. Attorney General Robert H. Jackson announced the approval of new deportation procedures against Congress of Industrial Organizations leader Harry Bridges, a native of Australia, under the new provisions of the Alien Registration Act of 1940.

70 years ago
1946

On television today
Public ceremonies celebrating the Lincoln's Birthday holiday were transmitted by NBC from Washington to New York by coaxial cable; it was the first such transmission to take place.



Diplomacy
U.S. Secretary of State James Byrnes revealed that the U.S.S.R. had demanded, at the Allied Council of Foreign Ministers, sole trusteeship of the former Italian colony of Tripolitania.

The U.S. State Department issued a Blue Book accusing the government of Argentina of complicity with Germany during World War II and continued protection of Nazi interests.

Politics and government
Soviet military authorities announced the formation of an all-Korean Central Government of North Korea.

The Japanese home office announced that 1,931 candidates were seeking election to the reformed House of Representatives.

U.S. Representatives Hugh De Lacy (Democrat--Washington) and John Rankin (Democrat--Mississippi) were ruled off the House floor after a dispute over Rep. Rankin's reference to newsman Walter Winchell as "a little slime-mongering kike."

Medicine
A New York State Senate committee killed two bills outlawing the use of dogs in medical experiments.

Economics and finance
The U.S. Treasury Department released Dutch assets of $1.8 billion, which had been frozen when German forces had occupied the Netherlands during World War II.

Labour
The U.S. United Auto Workers rejected General Motors' offer of an 18½c-per-hour wage increase, and broke off negotiations.

60 years ago
1956

On television tonight
Alfred Hitchcock Presents, on CBS
Tonight's episode: And So Died Riabouchinska, starring Claude Rains and Charles Bronson

50 years ago
1966

Hit parade
#1 single in Australia (Kent Music Report): We Can Work it Out/Day Tripper--The Beatles (5th week at #1)

#1 single in France: Michelle--The Beatles (2nd week at #1)

#1 single in Italy (FIMI): Nessuno mi può giudicare--Caterina Caselli

#1 single in West Germany (Media Control): Yesterday Man--Chris Andrews (2nd week at #1)

#1 single in the Netherlands (De Nederlandse Top 40): Michelle--The Beatles; The Overlanders

#1 single in the U.K. (New Musical Express): These Boots are Made for Walkin'--Nancy Sinatra

#1 single in the U.S.A. (Billboard): My Love--Petula Clark (2nd week at #1)

U.S.A. Top 10 (Cash Box)
1 Lightnin' Strikes--Lou Christie
2 My Love--Petula Clark
3 Barbara Ann--The Beach Boys
4 No Matter What Shape (Your Stomach's In)--The T-Bones
5 Uptight (Everything's Alright)--Stevie Wonder
6 My World is Empty Without You--The Supremes
7 Crying Time--Ray Charles
8 Zorba the Greek--Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass
9 A Well Respected Man--The Kinks
10 Going to a Go-Go--The Miracles

Singles entering the chart were Batman Theme by the Marketts (#51); Husbands and Wives (#63)/I've Been a Long Time Leavin' (But I'll Be a Long Time Gone) (#92) by Roger Miller; Listen People by Herman's Hermits (#64); Homeward Bound by Simon & Garfunkel (#67); Tears by Bobby Vinton (#70); Batman by Jan & Dean (#75); Somewhere There's a Someone by Dean Martin (#79); Batman Theme by Neal Hefti (#80); Up and Down by the McCoys (#82); Set You Free This Time by the Byrds (#83); 634-5789 (Soulsville, U.S.A.) by Wilson Pickett (#85); Dear Lover by Mary Wells (#86); When the Ship Hit the Sand by "Little" Jimmy Dickens (#87); Put Yourself in My Place by the Elgins (#91); Don't Take it Out on Me by Bobbi Martin (#93); Woman by Peter & Gordon (#94); Georgia on My Mind by the Righteous Brothers (#95); In My Room (El Amor) by Verdelle Smith (#96); Waitin' in Your Welfare Line by Buck Owens (#97); I'll Go Crazy by James Brown and the Famous Flames (#98); It's Too Late by Bobby Goldsboro (#99); Where am I Going? by Barbra Streisand (#100); and Stop! by the Moody Blues (also #100). The versions of Batman Theme were versions of the theme from the television series Batman. Listen People was from the movie When the Boys Meet the Girls (1965). Set You Free This Time was the B-side of It Won't Be Wrong, charting at #74.

Skiing
Nancy Greene of Rossland, British Columbia won the gold medal in the women's slalom event at the Canadian International Championships at Banff, Alberta in the first FIS World Cup race held in Canada.

40 years ago
1976

Died on this date
Sal Mineo, 37. U.S actor. Mr. Mineo was popular as a teenager in movies such as Rebel Without a Cause (1955); Giant (1956); The Gene Krupa Story (1959); and Exodus (1960), but his career declined in the 1960s. He was on his way home from rehearsing for a play when he was stabbed to death behind his apartment building in West Hollywood, California.

War
The Cuban-supported Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola captured all major points in the country's civil war.

Hockey
NHL
New York Islanders 2 @ Kansas City 2

The tie between the Islanders and Scouts and Kemper Arena began a league record 27-game winless streak for the Scouts.

30 years ago
1986

Hit parade
#1 single in Sweden (Topplistan): Say You, Say Me--Lionel Richie (6th week at #1)

Edmontonia
Wendy Gans was chosen Miss Teen Edmonton 1986. The pageant was broadcast on CFRN-TV, and this blogger correctly picked the winner at the beginning.

Scandal
A U.S. federal court jury awarded former University of Georgia English instructor Jan Kemp more than $2.5 million because she had been fired for protesting favouritism toward university football players. Ms. Kemp had worked in the university’s remedial English program, and had criticized the school for changing the failing grades given to nine football players in order to make them eligible for a bowl game.

U.S. Interior Secretary Donald Hodel fired Chrysler Corporation chairman Lee Iacocca as chairman of the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Centennial Commission, ostensibly to remove any appearance of a conflict of interest. Mr. Iacocca remained as chairman of the private Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation. The foundation raised money for the restoration of the statue and the Ellis Island buildings, while the government-appointed commission advised the Interior Department on how the money should be spent. Mr. Iacocca had raised a great deal of money for the foundation, but had been criticized by some for relying heavily on corporate sponsors who had then been permitted to use an image of the statue in their advertising.

Disasters
At hearings of the U.S. presidential commission investigating the January 28 explosion of the space shuttle Challenger, NASA revealed that it had been launching shuttles without backup seals to connect the joints of the rockets, confident that the primary seal would always hold.

25 years ago
1991

World events
China announced that an entrepreneur and a political organizer little-known outside China had each been sentenced to 13 years in prison for counter-revolutionary activities associated with the pro-democracy demonstrations of June 1989.

Economics and finance
U.S. President George Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers predicted that the recession would end soon. Their report attributed the recession to the jump in oil prices after the August 1990 invasion of Kuwait by Iraq, a credit crunch, and a decline in consumer confidence, and called on the Federal Reserve Board to increase the money supply.

20 years ago
1996

Hit parade
#1 single in Spain (PROMUSICAE): Jesus to a Child--George Michael (5th week at #1)

#1 single in Norway (VG-lista): Spaceman--Babylon Zoo (4th week at #1)

#1 single in Germany (Media Control): Missing (Todd Terry Remix)--Everything but the Girl (2nd week at #1)

Canada's Top 10 (RPM)
1 Time--Hootie & the Blowfish
2 One Sweet Day--Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men
3 Missing--Everything But the Girl
4 One of Us--Joan Osborne
5 Wildest Dreams--Tom Cochrane
6 Better Off as We Are--Blue Rodeo
7 Name--Goo Goo Dolls
8 Exhale (Shoop Shoop)--Whitney Houston
9 You'll See--Madonna
10 Beautiful Life--Ace of Base

Singles entering the chart were Love Won't Find Us Here by Mae Moore (#82); Follow You Down by Gin Blossoms (#86); The River by the Rankin Family (#91); Taffy by Lisa Loeb and Nine Stories (#93); and Street Fighting Man by the Rolling Stones (#94). Street Fighting Man was a live recording of a song that had been a hit single for the Rolling Stones in 1968.

10 years ago
2006

Olympics
Cindy Klassen of Canada won the bronze medal in the women's 3000-metre speed skating event in the Winter Olympics at Turin, Italy.

Football
NFL
Pro Bowl @ Aloha Stadium, Honolulu
NFC 23 AFC 17

Neil Rackers of the Arizona Cardinals kicked field goals of 22 and 20 yards in the last 6 1/2 minutes of the game to give the National Football Conference their win over the American Football Conference before 50,190 fans. Mr. Rackers finished with 3 field goals and converts on touchdowns by Alge Crumpler of the Atlanta Falcons and Derrick Brooks of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Mr. Crumpler scored on a 14-yard pass from Atlanta teammate Michael Vick with 8 seconds remaining in teh 2nd quarter, while Mr. Brooks returned an interception 59 yards for a touchdown in the 3rd quarter. Chris Chambers of the Miami Dolphins opened the scoring in the 1st quarter with a 16-yard touchdown reception from Peyton Manning of the Indianapolis Colts. Trent Green of the Kansas City Chiefs scored the other AFC TD on a 1-yard quarterback sneak early in the 4th quarter. Shayne Graham of the Cincinnati Bengals converted both AFC touchdowns and added a 31-yard field goal. Mr. Brooks was named the game's most valuable player.