TODAY IN HISTORY: Guy Lombardo
In 1890, Ellis Island opened as a U.S. immigration depot.
In 1891, a woman defeated an experienced male boxer in Indianapolis to win $500.
In 1899, Eva Mudge Nelson became the first woman in the United States to drive an automobile.
In 1929, Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians began a New Year’s Eve tradition. They played “Auld Lang Syne” to usher in the new year as CBS Radio broadcast the band’s first annual New Year’s Eve Party in New York. “Auld Lang Syne” had been the theme song for the band, which was formed 13 years earlier by Lombardo and his brother Carmen. Their New Year’s Eve Party moved to television in 1954. Guy Lombardo was born in London, Ont., in 1902 and died in 1977.
In 1931, Henderson Lake, B.C. finished the year with 800 cm (319.78 inches) of rain. It’s the wettest place on record in Canadian history.
In 1946, U.S. President Harry S. Truman officially proclaimed the end of the Second World War.
In 1970, Elvis Presley visited FBI headquarters. On the advice of an underling, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover declined to meet Presley. In documents released by the bureau in 1998, Presley was reported by an agency official to have said The Beatles had “laid the groundwork for many of the problems we are having with young people by their filthy unkempt appearances and suggestive music.”
In 1975, in what’s considered among the most exciting hockey games ever played, the Soviet Red Army club tied the Montreal Canadiens 3-3 at the Montreal Forum. The Habs outshot their visitors 38-13.
In 1978, Taiwanese diplomats struck their colours for the final time from the embassy flagpole in Washington, marking the end of diplomatic relations with the U.S.
In 1979, 48 people died when fire destroyed a crowded dance hall at a New Year’s Eve party in Chapais, Que.
In 1984, Rick Allen, drummer for the rock group Def Leppard, lost an arm in a car crash. He rejoined the band after his recovery, playing a specially-designed kit.
In 1998, fiddler Eleanor Townsend died after she set fire to her home in Barrie, Ont. She was 54. Her five-year-old granddaughter also died in the blaze. Townsend’s death came less than a month after her husband Graham died of colon cancer. Both had been inducted into the National Fiddling Hall of Fame the previous October.
1986, a fire at the 21-storey DuPont Plaza Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico, killed 96 people including two women from Toronto.
In 1988, Mario Lemieux tallied eight points and became the first NHL player to score a goal in all five possible situations in a game — even-strength, powerplay, shorthanded, penalty shot, empty net.
In 1991, representatives of the government of El Salvador and rebels reached agreement on a peace accord aimed at ending 12 years of civil war.
In 1999, an eight-day standoff ended peacefully at Kandahar airport in Afghanistan as five hijackers of an Indian Airlines plane left for an undisclosed destination after the Indian government released two militants and an Islamic cleric from Indian jails in exchange for the freedom of 155 hostages, including a Canadian woman. One passenger was stabbed to death during the hijacking.
In 1999, Boris Yeltsin announced his resignation as President of Russia. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin immediately took control of the government as acting president, then was elected to the office a few months later.
In 2008, The “Royal Canadian Air Farce,” the venerable political sketch show, wrapped up its 16-season television run with a special on CBC. The show got its start in 1973 on CBC Radio.
In 2009, a massive fire swept through an upscale Bangkok nightclub, killing more than 60 people, including a Canadian, and injuring more than 200 others.
In 2015, swing band leader Dal Richards, who helped Vancouverites bring in the New Year for the past 79 consecutive years, died just minutes before the stroke of midnight. He was 97. Richards received the Order of Canada in 1994, and is also on the BC Lions Wall of Fame in acknowledgment of his many years as musical director of half-time shows.
In 2015, Grammy award-winning singer Natalie Cole, the daughter of jazz legend Nat King Cole, died at age 65. She had battled drug problems and hepatitis that forced her to undergo a kidney transplant in May 2009.
In 2016, headliner Mariah Carey poorly lip-synced through her problem-plagued mini set at the annual New Year’s Eve special at Times Square in New York City. At many points she stopped singing, even while a pre-recorded vocal track played in the background. She later cited technical difficulties but Dick Clark Productions rebutted her claim that it had sabotaged her live performance.