25 YEARS AGO:
The Globe and Mail reported that for the first time since 1976, Maple Leaf Gardens owner Harold Ballard allowed a senior team from the Soviet Union into his building to play an exhibition match. It was a well-played contest with Team Canada playing a strong checking game in the third period to hang on to a 4-3 victory over Moscow Dynamo. Arguably, the 7,428 patrons saw a better match than the National Hockey League brand played in the same arena. What may have made the most lasting impression however was Ballard's charming little message near the end of the third period imploring the spectators to jeer, not cheer, the Soviet team. The scoreboard read: "Flight 007 was shot down by Russians. Don't cheer, just boo. Harold." The spectators complied.
50 YEARS AGO:
The Globe and Mail reported that Secretary of State for External Affairs Howard Green said that if Canada lived up to its responsibility in international affairs it would end the new decade as one of the leading nations in the world. "Perhaps Canada could play a decisive role in bringing about world peace," Green told the Vancouver Board of Trade, in a review of Canadian participation in international conferences. Quebec Lieutenant-Governor Onésime Gagnon, a member of the Union Nationale from its very beginning until his resignation in 1958, was expected to play a decisive role in the selection of a successor to the late premier Paul Sauvé. The name of Yves Prevost, 51-year-old Provincial Secretary, was prominent among the list of six or seven cabinet ministers being discussed for the premiership.
100 YEARS AGO:
The Globe reported that Montreal's typhoid emergency hospital was rapidly nearing the point where patients could be received. In the middle of the city's typhoid epidemic, supplies of all kinds were rolling in, and there was talk of establishing the hospital on a permanent basis. The municipal elections throughout Ontario were, on the whole, keenly contested. But a tragic moment occurred in Windsor, where a former alderman was elected by a good majority. Unfortunately he died suddenly of suspected heart disease while riding a street car downtown to hear the returns.