This Date In History

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View attachment 6584


November 30th 2013 - This Date in History.


Events:C/P.

3340 BC Earliest believed record of an eclipse.
1700 – Battle of Narva: A Swedish army of 8,500 men under Charles XII defeats a much larger Russian army at Narva.
1707 – The second Siege of Pensacola comes to end with the failure of the British to capture Pensacola, Florida.
1718 – Swedish king Charles XII dies during a siege of the fortress of Fredriksten in Norway.
1782 – American Revolutionary War: Treaty of Paris – In Paris, representatives from the United States and the Kingdom of Great Britain sign preliminary peace articles (later formalized as the 1783 Treaty of Paris).
1786 – The Grand Duchy of Tuscany, under Pietro Leopoldo I, becomes the first modern state to abolish the death penalty (later commemorated as Cities for Life Day).
1803 – In New Orleans, Louisiana, Spanish representatives officially transfer the Louisiana Territory to a French representative. Just 20 days later, France transfers the same land to the United States as the Louisiana Purchase.
1804 – The Democratic-Republican-controlled United States Senate begins an impeachment trial of Federalist Supreme Court Justice Samuel Chase.
1824 – Ground is broken at Allanburg, Ontario, for the building of the first Welland Canal.
1829 – First Welland Canal opens for a trial run, 5 years to the day from the ground breaking.
1853 – Crimean War: Battle of Sinop – The Imperial Russian Navy under Pavel Nakhimov destroys the Ottoman fleet under Osman Pasha at Sinop, a sea port in northern Turkey.
1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Franklin – The Confederate Army of Tennessee led by General John Bell Hood mounts a dramatically unsuccessful frontal assault on Union positions commanded by John McAllister Schofield around Franklin, Tennessee, with Hood losing six generals and almost a third of his troops.
1868 – A statue of King Charles XII of Sweden is inaugurated in Stockholm's KungsträdgÃ¥rden.
1872 – The first-ever international football match takes place at Hamilton Crescent, Glasgow, between Scotland and England.
1886 РThe Folies Berg̬re stages its first revue.
1902 – American Old West: Kid Curry Logan, second-in-command of Butch Cassidy's Wild Bunch gang, is sentenced to 20 years imprisonment with hard labor.
1908 – A mine explosion in Marianna, Pennsylvania, kills 154.
1916 – Costa Rica signs the Buenos Aires Convention, a copyright treaty.
1934 – The LNER Class A3 4472 Flying Scotsman becomes the first steam locomotive to be authenticated as reaching 100 mph.
1936 – In London, the Crystal Palace is destroyed by fire.
1939 – Winter War: Soviet forces cross the Finnish border in several places and bomb Helsinki and several other Finnish cities, starting the war.
1940 – Lucille Ball marries Desi Arnaz in Greenwich, Connecticut.
1942 – World War II: Battle of Tassafaronga ‐ A smaller squadron of Japanese destroyers led by Raizō Tanaka defeats a U.S. cruiser force under Carleton H. Wright.
1947 – 1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine begins on this day, leading up to the creation of the state of Israel.
1953 – Edward Mutesa II, the kabaka (king) of Buganda is deposed and exiled to London by Sir Andrew Cohen, Governor of Uganda.
1954 – In Sylacauga, Alabama, United States, the Hodges Meteorite crashes through a roof and hits a woman taking an afternoon nap in the only documented case of a human being hit by a rock from space.
1966 – Barbados becomes independent from the United Kingdom.
1967 – The People's Republic of South Yemen becomes independent from the United Kingdom.
1967 – The Pakistan Peoples Party is founded by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who becomes its first chairman.
1971 – Iran seizes the Greater and Lesser Tunbs from the United Arab Emirates.
1972 – Vietnam War: White House Press Secretary Ron Ziegler tells the press that there will be no more public announcements concerning American troop withdrawals from Vietnam due to the fact that troop levels are now down to 27,000.
1981 – Cold War: In Geneva, representatives from the United States and the Soviet Union begin to negotiate intermediate-range nuclear weapon reductions in Europe. (The meetings end inconclusively on December 17.)
1982 – Michael Jackson's second solo album, Thriller is released worldwide. It will become the best-selling record album in history.
1989 – Deutsche Bank board member Alfred Herrhausen is killed by a Red Army Faction terrorist bomb.
1993 – U.S. President Bill Clinton signs the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act (the Brady Bill) into law.
1994 – MS Achille Lauro catches fire off the coast of Somalia.
1995 – Official end of Operation Desert Storm.
1995 – U.S. President Bill Clinton visits Northern Ireland and speaks in favour of the "Northern Ireland peace process" to a huge rally at Belfast City Hall. He calls terrorists "yesterday's men".
1998 – Exxon and Mobil sign a USD$73.7 billion agreement to merge, thus creating Exxon-Mobil, the world's largest company.
1999 – In Seattle, Washington, United States, protests against a WTO meeting by anti-globalization protesters catch police unprepared and force the cancellation of opening ceremonies.
1999 – British Aerospace and Marconi Electronic Systems merge to form BAE Systems, Europe's largest defense contractor and the fourth largest aerospace firm in the world.
2001 – In Renton, Washington, United States, Gary Ridgway (aka The Green River Killer) is arrested.
2004 – Longtime Jeopardy! champion Ken Jennings of Salt Lake City, Utah, finally loses, leaving him with US$2,520,700, television's biggest game show winnings.
2004 – Lion Air Flight 538 crash lands in Surakarta, Central Java, Indonesia, killing 26.
2005 – John Sentamu becomes the first black archbishop in the Church of England with his enthronement as the 97th Archbishop of York.



Today's Canadian Headline...


1940 OTTAWA WINS ONLY 2-GAME GREY CUP
Toronto Ontario - Ottawa Rough Riders beat Toronto Balmy Beach 8- 2 in first of two game total points Grey Cup competition; Ottawa wins second game and 28th Grey Cup 12-5; the only two-game series ever played.


In Other Events...

1995 Toronto Ontario - Walt Disney Co. says it will open animation studios in Toronto and Vancouver.
1993 Ottawa Ontario - Maureen McTeer's Royal Commission on Reproductive Technologies issues its final report; calls for ban on cloning and on sale of fetal tissue.
1992 Montreal Quebec - Michael Ondaatje 1943- wins Governor-General's Award for English Fiction for novel The English Patient; won Britain's Booker Prize earlier.
1986 Vancouver BC - Al Bruno's underdog CFL Hamilton Tiger Cats defeat Edmonton Eskimos 39-15 in 74th Grey Cup game.
1983 Ottawa Ontario - Close of the 1st Session of the 32nd Parliament, 1st Session; longest session on record, at 1326 days; 591 sitting days of the House of Commons, 329 sitting days of the Senate; from April 14, 1980.
1972 Yellowknife NWT - David Kootook found dead with other plane crash victims; he starved to death rather than eat human flesh of dead passengers.
1969 Montreal Quebec - Russ Jackson throws record four touchdowns as Frank Clair's Ottawa Rough Riders beat Saskatchewan Roughriders 29-11 in 57th CFL Grey Cup game.
1968 Toronto Ontario - Frank Clair's Ottawa Rough Riders beat Calgary Stampeders 24-21 in 56th CFL Grey Cup game.
1963 Vancouver British Columbia - Ralph Sazio's Hamilton Tiger Cats beat BC Lions 21-10 in 51st CFL Grey Cup game.
1962 Cornwall Ontario - Chlorine gas escaping from railway tank car sends 100 residents of Cornwall to hospital.
1957 Toronto Ontario - Jim Trimble's Hamilton Tiger Cats beat Winnipeg Blue Bombers 32-7 in 45th CFL Grey Cup game.
1946 Toronto Ontario - Toronto Argonauts beat Winnipeg Blue Bombers 28-6 in 34th Grey Cup game.
1945 Toronto Ontario - Toronto Argonauts beat Winnipeg Blue Bombers, 35-0 in 33rd Grey Cup game.
1942 Ottawa Ontario - Stanley Knowles 1908-1997 sworn in as MP for Winnipeg North Centre; CCF/NDP Member for total of 37 years, 4 months, 21 days; to 31 March 1958; then June 18, 1962, to July 09, 1984.
1942 Toronto Ontario - Toronto Hurricanes beat Winnipeg Bombers, 8-5 in 30th Grey Cup game.
1933 Montreal Quebec - Arthur William Currie dies; soldier, educator, born at Strathroy, Ontario, Dec. 05, 1875. Currie was appointed commander of the 2nd Canadian Infantry Brigade on Sept. 29, 1914, commander of the 1st Canadian Division on Sept, 13, 1915 and commander of the Canadian Corps on June 09, 1917; led Canada's 100 days, beginning Aug 8 and lasting until 11 Nov 1918, the most successful of all Allied offensives during the war culminating in the victory at Vimy Ridge and the rout of the Germans eastward; served as Principal of McGill before his death.
1929 Hamilton Ontario - Hamilton Tigers beat Regina Roughriders 14-3 in 17th Grey Cup game.
1915 Ottawa Ontario - Canadian government publishes World War I casualties reported so far: 539 officers and 13,017 men killed in action.
1912 Hamilton Ontario - Hamilton Alerts beat Toronto Argonauts 11-4 in 4th Grey Cup game; before 4,337 fans.
1909 Ottawa Ontario - Canadian Northern Ontario Railway opens its line from Hawkesbury to Ottawa.
1869 Fort Dufferin Manitoba - William McDougall slips in to Red River Colony at night and reads the proclamation that officially declares the Hudson's Bay Company territory's annexation to Canada.
1847 Victoria BC - Modeste Demers 1809-1871 appointed first Roman Catholic Bishop of Vancouver Island.
1835 Toronto Ontario - Francis Bond Head 1793-1875 appointed Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada; serves from Jan. 25, 1836 to March 23, 1838
1831 St. Andrew's PEI - Opening of St. Andrew's, first Catholic college in Atlantic Canada.
1824 Welland Ontario - Samuel Keefer starts construction of the Welland Canal, joining Lake Erie and Lake Ontario; engineer and President of the Welland Canal Company
1813 Astoria Oregon - William Black arrives off mouth of Columbia in 26-gun Royal Navy sloop 'Raccoon'; renames the North West Company's Fort Astoria Fort George.
1782 Paris France - US and Britain agree on preliminary peace terms to end American Revolutionary War.
1696 St. John's, Newfoundland - Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville 1661-1706 takes St. John's with Bonaventure; troops loot and burn on the other side of the peninsula.
1629 England - Claude de Saint-Etienne de La Tour awarded baronetcy of Nova Scotia when he changes his allegiance to England; prisoner in England since 1628

End of C/P.

 

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View attachment 6588


December 1st 2013 - This Date in History.

Events:C/P.


800 – Charlemagne judges the accusations against Pope Leo III in the Vatican.
1420 – Henry V of England enters Paris.
1640 РEnd of the Iberian Union: Portugal acclaims as King Jọo IV of Portugal, ending 60 years of personal union of the crowns of Portugal and Spain and the end of the rule of the Philippine Dynasty.
1768 – The slave ship Fredensborg sinks off Tromøy in Norway.
1822 – Peter I is crowned Emperor of Brazil.
1824 – United States presidential election, 1824: Since no candidate received a majority of the total electoral college votes in the election, the United States House of Representatives is given the task of deciding the winner in accordance with the Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
1826 – French philhellene Charles Nicolas Fabvier forces his way through the Turkish cordon and ascends the Acropolis of Athens, which had been under siege.
1828 – Argentine general Juan Lavalle makes a coup against governor Manuel Dorrego, beginning the Decembrist revolution.
1834 – Slavery is abolished in the Cape Colony in accordance with the Slavery Abolition Act 1833.
1862 – In his State of the Union Address President Abraham Lincoln reaffirms the necessity of ending slavery as ordered ten weeks earlier in the Emancipation Proclamation.
1865 – Shaw University, the first historically black university in the southern United States, is founded in Raleigh, North Carolina.
1885 – First serving of the soft drink Dr Pepper at a drug store in Waco, Texas.
1913 – The Buenos Aires Metro, the first underground railway system in the southern hemisphere and in Latin America, begins operation.
1913 – The Ford Motor Company introduces the first moving assembly line.
1913 – Crete, having obtained self rule from Turkey after the First Balkan War, is annexed by Greece.
1918 – Transylvania unites with Romania, following the incorporation of Bessarabia (March 27) and Bukovina (November 28), thus concluding the Great Union.
1918 – The Kingdom of Iceland becomes a sovereign state, yet remains a part of the Danish kingdom.
1918 – The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later known as the Kingdom of Yugoslavia) is proclaimed.
1919 – Lady Astor becomes the first female Member of Parliament to take her seat in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. (She had been elected to that position on November 28.)
1934 – In the Soviet Union, Politburo member Sergei Kirov is shot dead by Leonid Nikolaev at the Communist Party headquarters in Leningrad.
1941 – World War II: Emperor Hirohito of Japan gives the final approval to initiate war against the United States.
1941 – World War II: Fiorello La Guardia, Mayor of New York City and Director of the Office of Civilian Defense, signs Administrative Order 9, creating the Civil Air Patrol.
1948 – Taman Shud Case: The body of an unidentified man is found in Adelaide, Australia, involving an undetectable poison and a secret code in a very rare book; the case remains unsolved and is "one of Australia's most profound mysteries."
1952 – The New York Daily News reports the news of Christine Jorgensen, the first notable case of sexual reassignment surgery.
1955 – American Civil Rights Movement: In Montgomery, Alabama, seamstress Rosa Parks refuses to give up her bus seat to a white man and is arrested for violating the city's racial segregation laws, an incident which leads to the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
1958 – The Central African Republic attains self-rule within the French Union.
1958 – The Our Lady of the Angels School fire in Chicago kills 92 children and three nuns.
1959 – Cold War: Opening date for signature of the Antarctic Treaty, which sets aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve and bans military activity on the continent.
1960 – Paul McCartney and Pete Best are arrested (and later deported) from Hamburg, Germany, after accusations of attempted arson.
1963 – Nagaland becomes the 16th state of India.
1964 – Vietnam War: U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson and his top-ranking advisers meet to discuss plans to bomb North Vietnam.
1964 – Malawi, Malta and Zambia join the United Nations.
1965 – India's Border Security Force is established.
1966 – The first Gävle goat, an annual Swedish Yule Goat tradition, is erected in Gävle.
1969 – Vietnam War: The first draft lottery in the United States is held since World War II.
1971 – Cambodian Civil War: Khmer Rouge rebels intensify assaults on Cambodian government positions, forcing their retreat from Kompong Thmar and nearby Ba Ray.
1973 – Papua New Guinea gains self-governance from Australia.
1974 – TWA Flight 514, a Boeing 727, crashes northwest of Dulles International Airport, killing all 92 people on board.
1974 – Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 6231, another Boeing 727, crashes northwest of John F. Kennedy International Airport.
1976 – Angola joins the United Nations.
1981 – Inex-Adria Aviopromet Flight 1308, a McDonnell Douglas MD-80, crashes in Corsica, killing all 180 people on board.
1984 – NASA conducts the Controlled Impact Demonstration, wherein an airliner is deliberately crashed in order to test technologies and gather data to help improve survivability of crashes.
1988 – Benazir Bhutto is appointed Prime Minister of Pakistan.
1989 Р1989 Philippine coup attempt: The right-wing military rebel Reform the Armed Forces Movement attempts to oust Philippine President Corazon Aquino in a failed bloody coup d'̩tat.
1989 – Cold War: East Germany's parliament abolishes the constitutional provision granting the Communist Party the leading role in the state.
1990 – Channel Tunnel sections started from the United Kingdom and France meet 40 metres beneath the seabed.
1991 – Cold War: Ukrainian voters overwhelmingly approve a referendum for independence from the Soviet Union.
1997 – In the Indian state of Bihar, Ranvir Sena attacked the CPI(ML) Party Unity stronghold Lakshmanpur-Bathe, killing 63 lower caste people.
2001 – Captain Bill Compton brings Trans World Airlines Flight 220, an MD-83, into St. Louis International Airport bringing to an end 76 years of TWA operations following TWA's purchase by American Airlines.
2009 – The Treaty of Lisbon, which amends the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty establishing the European Community, which together comprise the constitutional basis of European Union, comes into effect.



Today's Canadian Headline...


1926 ONTARIO SCRAPS PROHIBITION
Ontario - Ontario goes wet as voters decide on government control of sale of liquor; rather than prohibition.

1891
Springfield Massachusetts - James Naismith, a YMCA trainer from Almonte, Ontario, nails two peach buckets up on opposite ends of the Springfield College gym and instructs his students to toss soccer balls into them, thus inventing the game of basketball. He had been looking for a new indoor phys-ed activity for the winter season.


In Other Events...

1996 Matapedia Quebec - Société des chemins de fer du Québec [Quebec Railway Corporation] starts operating the former CN line between Matapedia and Chandler; short line called the Chemin de fer Baie des Chaleurs, a wholly owned subsidiary.
1995 Ottawa Ontario - Government introduces employment insurance reform measures in the Commons.
1994 Montreal Quebec - Lucien Bouchard struck by flesh-eating bacteria; doctors will be forced to amputate his left leg.
1994 Montreal Quebec - Société des chemins de fer du Québec [Quebec Railway Corporation] starts operating the former CN line from Limoilou to Clermont.
1987 Toronto Ontario - Royal Bank buys 75% of Dominion Securities for $385 million.
1986 Ottawa Ontario - Supreme Court rules that Canada Post is not obligated to provide door-to-door delivery to every Canadian household.
1980 NWT - Founding of new northern TV network, broadcasting in Inuktitut to the eastern Arctic.
1970 Ottawa Ontario - Commons passes Public Order (Temporary Measures) Act to replace War Measures Act; continues outlawing of FLQ, lets police arrest without warrant.
1969 Montreal Quebec - FLQ terrorists set off bomb on the campus of McGill University.
1969 Canada - Police forces bring in breathalyzer testing to take blood alcohol levels of suspected impaired drivers.
1960 Detroit Michigan - Gordie Howe 1928- becomes National Hockey League's leading scorer with 1,092 points; eventually surpassed by Wayne Gretzky.
1960 Havana Cuba - Castro government purchases Cuban assets of Bank of Nova Scotia.
1951 Toronto Ontario - Ontario opens new Toronto-Barrie highway for traffic; named Highway 400 the following year.
1943 Italy - The 1st Canadian Infantry Division starts to take control of the bridgehead on the Sangro River, Italy; will reach the Moro River by Dec. 04; British Eighth Army making one last attempt to break through into the Lombardy Plain before winter.
1941 Ottawa Ontario - Maximum Prices Regulations passed, to begin wage and price controls; based on the highest prices in the four weeks ending Oct. 11.
1939 Fredericton, Montreal Quebec - Group of 7,500 Canadian Army volunteers sails for England to serve in World War II.
1936 Fredericton, Vancouver BC - Completion of new Vancouver City Hall at 12th and Cambie.
1936 Fredericton, New Brunswick Ontario - The purple violet (Viola cuculata) becomes New Brunswick's official flower after a vote by school children and the Womens Institutes.
1931 Ottawa Ontario - Ottawa branch of the Royal Mint starts operation as the Royal Canadian Mint, under the control of the Department of Finance, which acquired the buildings and land.
1930 Montreal Quebec - NHL drops 20 minute slashing-about-the-head penalty.
1922 New Brunswick - New Brunswick drivers switch to driving on the right-hand side of the road.
1920 Ottawa Ontario - Ottawa declares that no immigrant can enter Canada with less than $250; plus $125 per family.
1919 Ontario - Ambrose Small 1867-1919? sells his chain of theatres to Trans-Canada Theatres for $2 million; promptly disappears the following day; presumably he was murdered; no trace of Small has ever been found.
1903 Ottawa Ontario - Fire guts central building of the University of Ottawa.
1896 Parry Sound, Ontario - Ottawa, Arnprior and Parry Sound Railway opens line to Depot Harbour from Madawaska, completing link to Lake Huron.
1868 Ottawa Ontario - John Young, Baron Lisgar 1807-1876 appointed administrator of Canada; serves until Feb. 1, 1869; then Governor General.
1865 Toronto Ontario - The Globe newspaper publishes first authorized stock exchange lists on a regular basis.
1859 Toronto Ontario - John Sheridan Hogan robbed and murdered in the Don Valley by thieves known as the Brook's Bush gang; founder of The United Empire weekly, and editor of The British Colonist newspaper; Reform member of the Assembly; his body found in the river March 30, 1861; gang member James Brown convicted and executed March 10, 1862, in Toronto's last public hanging.
1855 Lévis Quebec - First train from Lévis to St-Thomas de Montmagny.
1854 Kingston Ontario - Post Office offers first money order service.
1844 Montreal Quebec - First Montreal municipal elections; divided into 9 wards, with a council of 21 members.
1841 Toronto Ontario - Alexander Davidson gets first Canadian copyright for 'The Canadian Spelling Book'; published by Rowell.
1837 Montreal Quebec - Patriote leader Louis-Joseph Papineau declared a rebel; reward of £1,000 offered for his capture; he had fled to the US.
1775 Quebec Quebec - Quebec numbers 5,000 inhabitants on the eve of the American attack.
1757 Montreal Quebec - Famine in New France; people turn to eating horses.
1680 Canada - Halley's Comet appears for three months; 'The Great Comet' visible until February.
1535 Quebec Quebec - Jacques Cartier's men begin to experience the effects of scurvy, due to lack of vitamin C in their diet; the Iroquois will show them how to make cedar tea ('tisane d'anneda') as a cure.

End of C/P.

 

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December 2nd 2013 - This Date in History.


Events:C/P.

1409 – The University of Leipzig opens.
1697 – St Paul's Cathedral is consecrated in London.
1755 – The second Eddystone Lighthouse is destroyed by fire.
1763 – Dedication of the Touro Synagogue, in Newport, Rhode Island, the first synagogue in what will become the United States.
1775 – The USS Alfred becomes the first vessel to fly the Grand Union Flag (the precursor to the Stars and Stripes); the flag is hoisted by John Paul Jones.
1804 – At Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, Napoleon Bonaparte crowns himself Emperor of the French, the first French Emperor in a thousand years.
1805 – Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Austerlitz – French troops under Napoleon Bonaparte defeat a joint Russo-Austrian force.
1823 – Monroe Doctrine: In a State of the Union message, U.S. President James Monroe proclaims American neutrality in future European conflicts, and warns European powers not to interfere in the Americas.
1845 – Manifest Destiny: In a State of the Union message, U.S. President James K. Polk proposes that the United States should aggressively expand into the West.
1848 – Franz Josef I becomes Emperor of Austria.
1851 РFrench President Louis-Napol̩on Bonaparte overthrows the Second Republic.
1852 РLouis-Napol̩on Bonaparte becomes Emperor of the French as Napoleon III.
1859 – Militant abolitionist leader John Brown is hanged for his October 16th raid on Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.
1867 – At Tremont Temple in Boston, British author Charles Dickens gives his first public reading in the United States.
1899 – Philippine–American War: The Battle of Tirad Pass, termed "The Filipino Thermopylae", is fought.
1908 – Puyi becomes Emperor of China at the age of two
1917 – World War I: Russia and the Central Powers sign an armistice at Brest-Litovsk, and peace talks leading to the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk begin.
1920 – Following more than a month of Turkish-Armenian War, the Turkish dictated Treaty of Alexandropol is concluded.
1927 – Following 19 years of Ford Model T production, the Ford Motor Company unveils the Ford Model A as its new automobile.
1930 – Great Depression: In a State of the Union message, U.S. President Herbert Hoover proposes a US$150 million public works program to help generate jobs and stimulate the economy.
1939 – New York City's La Guardia Airport opens.
1942 – World War II: During the Manhattan Project, a team led by Enrico Fermi initiates the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction.
1943 – World War II: A Luftwaffe bombing raid on the harbour of Bari, Italy, sinks numerous cargo and transport ships, including the American SS John Harvey, which is carrying a stockpile of World War I-era mustard gas.
1947 – Jerusalem Riots of 1947: Riots break out in Jerusalem in response to the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine.
1954 – Cold War: The United States Senate votes 65 to 22 to censure Joseph McCarthy for "conduct that tends to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute".
1954 – The Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty, between the United States and Taiwan, is signed in Washington, D.C.
1956 – The Granma reaches the shores of Cuba's Oriente province. Fidel Castro, Che Guevara and 80 other members of the 26th of July Movement disembark to initiate the Cuban Revolution.
1961 – In a nationally broadcast speech, Cuban leader Fidel Castro declares that he is a Marxist-Leninist and that Cuba is going to adopt Communism.
1962 – Vietnam War: After a trip to Vietnam at the request of U.S. President John F. Kennedy, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield becomes the first American official to comment adversely on the war's progress.
1970 – The United States Environmental Protection Agency begins operations.
1971 – Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Fujairah, Sharjah, Dubai, and Umm Al Quwain form the United Arab Emirates.
1975 – The Pathet Lao seizes the Laotian capital of Vientiane, forces the abdication of King Sisavang Vatthana, and proclaims the Lao People's Democratic Republic.
1976 – Fidel Castro becomes President of Cuba, replacing Osvaldo Dorticós Torrado.
1980 – Salvadoran Civil War: Four U.S. nuns and churchwomen, Ita Ford, Maura Clarke, Jean Donovan, and Dorothy Kazel, are murdered by a military death squad.
1982 – At the University of Utah, Barney Clark becomes the first person to receive a permanent artificial heart.
1988 – Benazir Bhutto is sworn in as Prime Minister of Pakistan, becoming the first woman to head the government of an Islam-dominated state.
1993 – Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar is shot and killed in Medellín.
1993 – Space Shuttle program: STS-61 – NASA launches the Space Shuttle Endeavour on a mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope.
1999 – Glenbrook Rail Accident: Seven passengers are killed when two trains collide near Sydney, New South Wales.
1999 – The United Kingdom devolves political power in Northern Ireland to the Northern Ireland Executive.
2001 – Enron files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.



Today's Canadian Headline...


1933 NEWFOUNDLAND GOES BUST
St. John's Newfoundland- Newfoundland gives up self-governing Dominion status and suspends constitution; caused by disastrous financial situation.

1989
Winnipeg Manitoba - Audrey McLaughlin 1936- elected national leader of the NDP, succeeding Ed Broadbent. NDP also retract support of Meech Lake Accord. McLaughlin won Yukon seat in 1987 by-election; first New Democrat MP elected in the Yukon; 1988 reelected, NDP caucus chair.


In Other Events...


1997 Montreal Quebec - Pierre Péladeau dies of a heart attack; founding Chairman of media giant Québécor.
1996 Quebec Quebec - Lucien Bouchard sworn in as Quebec Premier, replacing Jacques Parizeau.
1996 Ottawa Ontario - Michel Gauthier resigns as interim leader of the Bloc québécois; later replaced by Gilles Duceppe in a convention vote.
1995 Montreal Quebec - Patrick Roy resigns from the Montreal Canadiens; suspended the following day by General Manager Réjean Houle; later traded to Colorado Avalanche.
1993 North America - National Hockey League referees go back to work after walkout.
1991 Ottawa Ontario - Canada recognizes newly independent state of Ukraine.
1991 Montreal Quebec - National Bank of Canada buys Central Guaranty Trust's branches east of Ontario for $50 million; 48 retail branches plus $3.5 billion in deposits and loans.
1985 Quebec - Robert Bourassa 1933-1996, with the slogan 'la force de l'expérience', leads the Liberals back to power in Quebec after 9 years of PQ rule, defeating René Lévesque's successor Pierre-Marc Johnson with 56% of the vote and 99 seats; loses his own riding of Bertrand, but subsequently elected (Jan. 20) in the riding of St Laurent; puts forward list of five demands as Quebec's conditions for signing the Constitution. Bourassa was re-elected leader of the Liberals in the fall of 1983, replacing Claude Ryan.
1981 Ottawa Ontario - House of Commons votes 246 to 24 to patriate British North America Act from Britain; with amending formula and Charter of Rights.
1973 Montreal Quebec - Rock group The Who and some pals are jailed overnight for $6,000 worth of hotel damage, after a show at the Montreal Forum. The incident is later profiled in the John Entwistle song, Cell Block Number Seven. (1973)
1972 Toronto Ontario - Jerry Williams' Hamilton Tiger-Cats beat Saskatchewan, 13-10, in 60th CFL Grey Cup game.
1971 Oslo Norway - Canada signs fishing and sealing agreements with Norway; end of Norway's right to fish within Canada; seal harvest split between Canada and Norway.
1970 Montreal Quebec - James Cross discovered, as police surround house where is held captive; British Trade Commissioner in Montreal kidnapped by FLQ terrorists.
1969 Copenhagen Denmark - Canada, US, Denmark and USSR set up permanent secretariat to deal with problems of the Inuit.
1967 Toronto Ontario - Ralph Sazio's Hamilton Tiger-Cats beat Saskatchewan Roughriders, 24-1, in the 55th CFL Grey Cup game.
1963 London England - Queen Elizabeth II speaks by phone to Prime Ministers of Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand to inaugurate new 24,140 km COMPAC, the Commonwealth Pacific Cable System, multi-channel multipurpose cable; event broadcast live on CBC-TV.
1963 Glace Bay Nova Scotia - Industry Minister Charles 'Bud' Drury 1912- announces heavy water plant, necessary for CANDU reactor, at Glace Bay.
1961 Toronto Ontario - Bud Grant's Winnipeg Blue Bombers beat Hamilton Tiger Cats 21-14 in overtime in the CFL's first OT Grey Cup game.
1960 Quebec Quebec - Provincial premiers meet at first Interprovincial Conference of Premiers; discuss national cooperation at provincial level.
1960 Ottawa Ontario - Parliament passes Act halting national rail strike; continues rail service until May 15.
1959 Toronto Ontario - Murray Ross 1910- appointed first President of York University in Toronto; Ontario's 10th university.
1949 London England - British Parliament gives Canada the power to make changes to the British North America Act 1867.
1942 Ottawa Ontario - William Lyon Mackenzie King 1874-1950 proposes new world order based on human rights and universal rule of law.
1942 Germany - Canadian bomber crew get key data on German airborne radar; prelude to big bomber offensive; return badly shot up.
1922 Toronto Ontario - Queen's University defeats Edmonton Eskimos, 13-1, in the 10th Grey Cup game.
1907 Los Angeles, California - Tommy Burns from Hanover, Ontario, KOs Gunner Moir to retain the world heavyweight boxing title. Burns was the smallest champion ever, at only 162 lbs and 5'7"; captured the crown from Marvin Hart Feb. 23, 1906.
1893 Montreal Quebec - Lord Aberdeen, Governor General of Canada, officially opens the Royal Victoria Hospital.
1881 Quebec - J-A Chapleau re-elected Premier of Quebec.
1881 Montreal Quebec - Bomb discovered in the Palais de Justice in Montreal.
1853 Victoria BC - David Cameron 1804-1872 appointed first Chief Justice of new Supreme Court of Vancouver Island; founded by Governor James Douglas.
1841 Montreal Quebec - Arrival of the first priests of the Oblate Order (Oblats de Marie) in Montreal.
1837 Toronto Ontario - John Rolph advances date of Upper Canada coup to December 4, causes confusion among the rebels.
1837 St-Denis, Quebec - Lt-Col. Gore returns to St-Denis after earlier standoff by the Patriote rebels; troops sack and burn the village; heads to St-Charles the following day, then to St-Hyacinthe.
1615 Quebec Quebec - Father Jean Dolbeau departs from Quebec to minister to the Montagnais.

End of C/P.

 

[henric]

December 3rd 2013 - This Date in History.


Events:C/P.

915 – Pope John X crowned Berengar I of Italy as Holy Roman Emperor.
1799 – War of the Second Coalition: Battle of Wiesloch, Austrian Lieutenant Field Marshal Sztáray de Nagy-Mihaly defeats the French at Wiesloch.
1800 – War of the Second Coalition: Battle of Hohenlinden, French General Moreau defeats the Austrian Archduke John near Munich decisively, coupled with First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte's victory at Marengo effectively forcing the Austrians to sign an armistice and ending the war.
1818 – Illinois becomes the 21st U.S. state.
1834 – The Zollverein (German Customs Union) begins the first regular census in Germany.
1854 – Eureka Stockade: In what is claimed by many to be the birth of Australian democracy, more than 20 gold miners at Ballarat, Victoria, Australia are killed by state troopers in an uprising over mining licences.
1898 – The Duquesne Country and Athletic Club defeated 16–0, an all-star collection of early football players, in what is considered to be the very first all-star game for professional American football.
1901 – US President Theodore Roosevelt delivers a 20,000-word speech to the House of Representatives asking the Congress to curb the power of trusts "within reasonable limits".
1904 – The Jovian moon Himalia is discovered by Charles Dillon Perrine at California's Lick Observatory.
1910 – Modern neon lighting is first demonstrated by Georges Claude at the Paris Motor Show.
1912 – Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegro, and Serbia (the Balkan League) sign an armistice with the Ottoman Empire, temporarily halting First Balkan War (the armistice expired on February 3, at which time hostilities resumed).
1919 – After nearly 20 years of planning and construction, including two collapses causing 89 deaths, the Quebec Bridge opens to traffic.
1925 – World War I aftermath: The final Locarno Treaty is signed in London, establishing post-war territorial settlements.
1927 – Putting Pants on Philip, the first Laurel and Hardy film, is released.
1944 – Greek Civil War: Fighting breaks out in Athens between the ELAS and government forces supported by the British Army.
1959 – The current flag of Singapore is adopted, six months after Singapore became self-governing within the British Empire.
1960 – The musical Camelot debuted at the Majestic Theatre on Broadway, and would become associated with the Kennedy administration.
1964 – Berkeley Free Speech Movement: Police arrest over 800 students at the University of California, Berkeley, following their takeover and sit-in at the administration building in protest at the UC Regents' decision to forbid protests on UC property.
1967 – At Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa, a transplant team headed by Christiaan Barnard carries out the first heart transplant on a human (53-year-old Louis Washkansky).
1970 РOctober Crisis: In Montreal, Quebec, kidnapped British Trade Commissioner James Cross is released by the Front de lib̩ration du Qu̩bec terrorist group after being held hostage for 60 days. Police negotiate his release and in return the Canadian government grants five terrorists from the FLQ's Chenier Cell their request for safe passage to Cuba.
1971 – Indo-Pakistani War of 1971: Pakistan launches a pre-emptive strike against India and a full scale war begins claiming hundreds of lives.
1973 – Pioneer program: Pioneer 10 sends back the first close-up images of Jupiter.
1976 – An assassination attempt is made on Bob Marley. He is shot twice, but plays a concert two days later.
1979 – In Cincinnati, Ohio, 11 fans are suffocated in a crush for seats on the concourse outside Riverfront Coliseum before a Who concert.
1979 – Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini becomes the first Supreme Leader of Iran.
1982 – A soil sample is taken from Times Beach, Missouri that will be found to contain 300 times the safe level of dioxin.
1984 – Bhopal Disaster: A methyl isocyanate leak from a Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, kills more than 3,800 people outright and injures 150,000–600,000 others (some 6,000 of whom would later die from their injuries) in one of the worst industrial disasters in history.
1989 – Cold War: In a meeting off the coast of Malta, US President George H. W. Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev release statements indicating that the cold war between NATO and The Soviet Union may be coming to an end.
1990 – At Detroit Metropolitan Airport, Northwest Airlines Flight 1482 collides with Northwest Airlines Flight 299 on the runway, killing 7 passengers and 1 crew member aboard flight 1482.
1992 – UN Security Council Resolution 794 is unanimously passed, approving a coalition of United Nations peacekeepers led by the United States to form UNITAF, with the task of establishing peace and ensuring that humanitarian aid is distributed in Somalia.
1992 РThe Greek oil tanker Aegean Sea, carrying 80,000 tonnes of crude oil, runs aground in a storm while approaching La Coru̱a, Spain, and spills much of its cargo.
1992 – A test engineer for Sema Group uses a personal computer to send the world's first text message via the Vodafone network to the phone of a colleague.
1997 – In Ottawa, Canada, representatives from 121 countries sign The Ottawa treaty prohibiting manufacture and deployment of anti-personnel landmines. The United States, People's Republic of China, and Russia do not sign the treaty, however.
1999 – NASA loses radio contact with the Mars Polar Lander moments before the spacecraft enters the Martian atmosphere.
1999 – Six firefighters are killed in the Worcester Cold Storage Warehouse fire in Worcester, Massachusetts.
2005 – XCOR Aerospace makes first manned rocket aircraft delivery of US Mail in Mojave, California.
2007 – Winter storms cause the Chehalis River to flood many cities in Lewis County, Washington, also closing a 20-mile portion of Interstate 5 for several days. At least eight deaths and billions of dollars in damages are blamed on the floods.
2009 – A suicide bombing in Mogadishu, Somalia, claims the lives of 25 people, including three ministers of the Transitional Federal Government.
2012 – At least 475 people are killed after Typhoon Bopha, makes landfall in the Philippines.



Today's Canadian Headline...


1960 CANADA GETS TWO MILLIONTH POST-WAR IMMIGRANT
Quebec Quebec - - Annette Toft arrives at Quebec City from Denmark; Canada's 2,000,000th immigrant since 1945.

1878
Winnipeg Manitoba - Canadian Pacific Railway connects Winnipeg with Emerson, Minnesota, and the outside world; Pembina branch connects with St. Paul and Pacific Railroad.


In Other Events...


1996 Paris France - Hélène Viel of Montreal killed in a terrorist attack in the Paris Metro; an innocent bystander.
1995 Montreal Quebec - Goalie Patrick Roy fired by Montreal Canadiens GM Réjean Houle; traded 3 days later to the Colorado Avalanche for Jocelyn Thibault.
1991 Ottawa Ontario - Denis Desautels issues Annual Report; criticizes farm aid, Indian Affairs, investment of government pension funds; new Auditor-General of Canada.
1991 Ottawa Ontario - Governor-General's Awards: Rohinton Mistry for English Fiction for first novel 'Such a Long Journey'; Bernard Arcand for French non-fiction for 'Le Jaguar et le tamanoir'; Andre Brochu for French Fiction for novel 'La Croix du Nord'; from Ville Mont-Royal; Gilbert Dupuis for French drama for 'Mon oncle Marcel qui vague vague près du métro Berri'; Madeleine Gagnon for French poetry for 'Chant pour un Québec lointain'; Robert Hunter, Robert Calihoo for English non-fiction for 'Occupied Canada: A Young White Man Discovers his Unsuspected Past'; Joan MacLeod for English drama for book 'Amigo's Blue Guitar'; Don McKay for English poetry for book 'Night Field'.
1991 Kapuskasing Ontario - Employees acquire 52% of Spruce Falls pulp & paper mill; cut workforce to 800, take pay cut; residents own 7%; Tembec 41%.
1985 Quebec Quebec - Old Quebec classified as a United Nations (UNESCO) World Heritage Site.
1981 Hollywood California - Allan Dwan dies at age 96; born Apr 3, 1885; Canadian born director of 1,850 films.
1981 Hamilton Ontario - Stelco workers end company's longest strike after 125 days.
1979 Toronto Ontario - Chang Kuo-tao dies in a Toronto nursing home at age 82; last survivor of the 12 founding members of the Chinese Communist Party.
1978 Montreal Quebec - Former FLQ terrorists Jacques Cossette and Micheline Lanctôt return from exile in Cuba and France.
1975 Ottawa Ontario - Ottawa starts selective wage controls on 4,300,000 workers; price controls on 1,500 large companies; after Commons passes anti-inflation legislation.
1973 Montreal Quebec - National Hockey League ends reserve clause in future player contracts, favouring a one-year option system similar to that used in National Football League contracts.
1971 Washington DC - Canada signs new extradition treaty with US; two new offenses added; adds conspiracy to commit assault and unlawful seizure of aircraft.
1970 Montreal Quebec - James Cross taken to Cuban pavilion at Expo '67 site and released to Commissioner; FLQ terrorists Jacques Cossette, Jacques and Micheline Lanctôt, Marc Charbonneau, Pierre Séguin and two others given safe passage to Cuba; British Trade Commissioner in Montreal had been captured in October.
1963 New York City - Conductor Walter Susskind leads the Toronto Symphony Orchestra in its successful Carnegie Hall debut.
1960 Edmonton Alberta - Opening of Edmonton International Airport, Canada's largest airport.
1960 New York City - Canadian Robert Goulet stars as Lancelot in the Lerner and Loewe musical, Camelot, opening at the Majestic Theater; with Richard Burton and Julie Andrews in the lead roles; Goulet gets rave reviews for his singing of the songs, If Ever I Would Leave You, Then You May Take Me to the Fair and How to Handle a Woman; also stars in film version.
1958 St-Jovite, Quebec - Opening of the Autoroute des Laurentides from Montreal.
1956 Montreal Quebec - Canadian Overseas Telecommunication Corporation introduces international Telex to Canada.
1956 Ottawa Ontario - Walter Gordon's Royal Commission on Canada's Economic Prospects issues a preliminary report on the government's economic policies, particularly on foreign investment; after 18 months or research directed by Douglas LePan; final report issued Nov 1957.
1951 Cornwall Ontario - Ottawa and Ontario agree to proceed with St. Lawrence Power Development.
1943 Cassino Italy - US-Canadian First Special Service Force takes Mount la Difensa on Cassino front.
1932 Toronto Ontario - Hamilton Tigers beat Regina Roughriders, 25-6 in the 20th Grey Cup game.
1921 Toronto Ontario - Toronto Argonauts beat Edmonton Eskimos, 23-0 in the 9th Grey Cup game.
1921 Canada - Founding of the Canadian Badminton Association; first championships held in Montreal in 1922; becomes an open world tourney in 1957.
1919 Ottawa Ontario - Federal government makes $25 million available to help tenants buy their homes.
1917 Ste-Foy, Quebec - First train crosses the new Quebec Bridge.
1915 Ottawa Ontario - Charles Philippe Beaubien 1870-1949 appointed to the Senate as a Conservative; serves for 33 years, 1 month and 14 days, until his death Jan 17, 1949.
1887 Toronto Ontario - Edmund Ernest Sheppard 1855-1924 founds Saturday Night magazine.
1882 Ste-Foy, Quebec - Arrival of Les Soeurs de Ste-Croix at Montreal.
1880 Hull Quebec - Quebec, Montreal, Ottawa and Occidental Railway extends its line from Hull to Chaudière over the Prince of Wales Bridge.
1874 Winnipeg Manitoba - Robert Atkinson Davis 1841-1903 succeeds Marc Girard as Premier of Manitoba; will negotiate better financial terms with Ottawa, and abolishes the Legislative Council; serves until Oct. 15, 1878; sells his hotel business in Winnipeg and moves to Chicago.
1855 Toronto Ontario - Opening of Great Western Railroad from Hamilton to Toronto.
1838 Windsor Ontario - 400 republicans and Canadian exiles cross from Detroit and attack Windsor.
1837 St-Charles, Quebec - Lt-Col Charles Gore and his troops arrive at St-Charles, and leave the following day for St-Hyacinthe.
1810 Alberta - David Thompson 1770-1857 reaches Athabasca River; continues upstream on Dec. 30.
1775 Pointe Aux Trembles, Quebec - Richard Montgomery 1736-1775 meets up with Benedict Arnold's force; the two American armies of the Continental Congress turn downstream to attack Quebec; arrive in sight of the walls later that day.
1738 North Dakota - Pierre Gaultier de Varennes de La Vérendrye 1685-1749 travels south to Mandan country with sons Louis-Joseph and François; reaches main Mandan village on the Missouri River.
1667 Quebec Quebec - Mgr. de Laval abolishes certain obligatory feast days, and institutes the Feast of Ste-Anne..
1653 Canso Nova Scotia - Fur trader Nicolas Denys 1598-1688 purchases rights to islands of the Gulf of St. Lawrence from Cap Canseau to Cap des Rosiers on Gaspé; gets royal mining concession; becomes Lord Proprietor and Governor of Cape Breton.

End of C/P.

 

[henric]

December 4th 2013 - This Date in History.


Events:C/P.


771 – Austrasian King Carloman dies, leaving his brother Charlemagne King of the now complete Frankish Kingdom.
1110 – First Crusade: The Crusaders sack Sidon.
1259 – Kings Louis IX of France and Henry III of England agree to the Treaty of Paris, in which Henry renounces his claims to French-controlled territory on continental Europe (including Normandy) in exchange for Louis withdrawing his support for English rebels.
1563 – The final session of the Council of Trent is held (it opened on December 13, 1545).
1619 – 38 colonists from Berkeley Parish in England disembark in Virginia and give thanks to God (this is considered by many to be the first Thanksgiving in the Americas).
1674 – Father Jacques Marquette founds a mission on the shores of Lake Michigan to minister to the Illiniwek (the mission would later grow into the city of Chicago, Illinois).
1676 – Battle of Lund: A Danish army under the command of King Christian V of Denmark engages the Swedish army commanded by Field Marshal Simon Grundel-Helmfelt.
1745 – Charles Edward Stewart's army reaches Derby, its furthest point during the second Jacobite Rising.
1783 – At Fraunces Tavern in New York City, US General George Washington formally bids his officers farewell.
1791 – The first edition of The Observer, the world's first Sunday newspaper, is published.
1829 – In the face of fierce local opposition, British governor Lord William Bentinck issues a regulation declaring that all who abet suttee in India are guilty of culpable homicide.
1864 – American Civil War: Sherman's March to the Sea – At Waynesboro, Georgia, forces under Union General Judson Kilpatrick prevent troops led by Confederate General Joseph Wheeler from interfering with Union General William T. Sherman's campaign destroying a wide swath of the South on his march to the Atlantic Ocean from Atlanta, Georgia.
1867 – Former Minnesota farmer Oliver Hudson Kelley founds the Order of the Patrons of Husbandry (better known today as the Grange).
1872 – The crewless American ship Mary Celeste is found by the British brig Dei Gratia (the ship had been abandoned for nine days but was only slightly damaged).
1875 – Notorious New York City politician Boss Tweed escapes from prison and flees to Cuba, then Spain.
1881 – The first edition of the Los Angeles Times is published.
1893 – First Matabele War: A patrol of 34 British South Africa Company soldiers is ambushed and annihilated by more than 3,000 Matabele warriors on the Shangani River in Matabeleland.
1909 – 1st Grey Cup game is played. The University of Toronto Varsity Blues defeat the Toronto Parkdale Canoe Club 26–6.
1909 – The Montreal Canadiens ice hockey club, the oldest professional hockey franchise in the world, is founded as a charter member of the National Hockey Association.
1918 – U.S. President Woodrow Wilson sails for the World War I peace talks in Versailles, becoming the first US president to travel to Europe while in office.
1921 – The first Virginia Rappe manslaughter trial against Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle ends in a hung jury.
1937 – The first issue of the children's comic, The Dandy Comic, is published.
1939 – World War II: HMS Nelson is struck by a mine (laid by U-31) off the Scottish coast and is laid up for repairs until August 1940.
1942 – World War II: Carlson's patrol during the Guadalcanal Campaign ends.
1943 – World War II: In Yugoslavia, resistance leader Marshal Josip Broz Tito proclaims a provisional democratic Yugoslav government in-exile.
1943 – World War II: U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt closes down the Works Progress Administration, because of the high levels of wartime employment in the United States.
1945 – By a vote of 65 to 7, the United States Senate approves United States participation in the United Nations (the UN is established on October 24, 1945).
1954 – The first Burger King is opened in Miami, Florida, United States
1956 – The Million Dollar Quartet (Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Johnny Cash) get together at Sun Studios for the first and last time.
1967 – Vietnam War: US and South Vietnamese forces engage Viet Cong troops in the Mekong Delta.
1969 – Black Panther Party members Fred Hampton and Mark Clark are shot and killed in their sleep during a raid by 14 Chicago police officers.
1971 – The United Nations Security Council calls an emergency session to consider the deteriorating situation between India and Pakistan.
1971 – The Indian Navy attacks the Pakistan Navy and Karachi.
1971 – The Montreux Casino in Switzerland is set ablaze by someone wielding a flare gun during a Frank Zappa concert; the incident would be noted in the Deep Purple song "Smoke on the Water".
1971 – "The Troubles": The Ulster Volunteer Force bombs a Catholic-owned pub in Belfast, killing 15 civilians and wounding 17. It was the city's highest death toll from a single incident during the conflict.
1975 – Suriname joins the United Nations.
1977 РJean-B̩del Bokassa, president of the Central African Republic, crowns himself Emperor Bokassa I of the Central African Empire.
1977 – Malaysia Airlines Flight 653 is hijacked and crashes in Tanjong Kupang, Johor, killing 100.
1978 – Following the murder of Mayor George Moscone, Dianne Feinstein becomes San Francisco, California's first female mayor (she served until January 8, 1988).
1979 – The Hastie fire in Hull, kills three schoolboys and eventually leads police to arrest Bruce George Peter Lee.
1980 – English rock group Led Zeppelin officially disbands, following the death of drummer John Bonham on September 25th.
1981 – South Africa grants independence to the Ciskei "homeland" (not recognized by any government outside South Africa).
1982 – The People's Republic of China adopts its current constitution.
1984 – Sri Lankan Civil War: Sri Lankan Army soldiers kill 107-150 civilians in Mannar.
1984 – Hezbollah militants hijack a Kuwait Airlines plane, killing four passengers.
1991 – Pan Am goes bankrupt and ceases operations.
1991 – Journalist Terry A. Anderson is released after 7 years in captivity as a hostage in Beirut. He is the last and longest-held American hostage in Lebanon.
1991 – Captain Mark Pyle pilots Clipper Goodwill, a Pan American World Airways Boeing 727-221ADV, to Miami International Airport ending 64 years of Pan Am operations.
1992 – Somali Civil War: President George H. W. Bush orders 28,000 US troops to Somalia in Northeast Africa.
1993 – A truce is concluded between the government of Angola and UNITA rebels.
1998 – The Unity Module, the second module of the International Space Station, is launched.
2005 – Tens of thousands of people in Hong Kong protest for democracy and call on the Government to allow universal and equal suffrage.
2006 – Six black youths assault a white teenager in Jena, Louisiana, US.



Today's Canadian Headline...


1909 U of T WINS FIRST GREY CUP GAME
Toronto Ontario - The University of Toronto beats Toronto Parkdale, 26-6, in the 1st Grey Cup game, before 3,807 fans. The Governor General, Earl Grey, donated the trophy for the Canadian football championship. Three years later, the first western team to play in the championship was the Edmonton Eskimos, of the Western Canada Rugby Football Union. College teams stopped competing in 1936.

1902

Toronto Ontario - Ontario goes dry, brings in prohibition by 199,749 votes; with 103,542 opposed; under Ontario Liquor Referendum Act.


In Other Events...


1996 Scottsdale Arizona - Wilf Carter dies at age 91; born in Port Hilford, Nova Scotia, son of a Baptist minister; Canadian country music legend.
1995 United Nations New York - Brian Tobin signs UN Treaty on migrating fish stocks; Fisheries Minister wants to protect Grand Bank stocks outside Canada's jurisdiction.
1991 Toronto Ontario - Bombardier buys rail transit maker UTDC Inc. from Ontario government for $17 million; will save 860 jobs in Kingston and Thunder Bay.
1990 Toronto Ontario - CTV show ENG, a newsroom drama, wins 1990 Gemini Award for Best Dramatic Series; 'Love and Hate' wins for best dramatic mini series (Thatcher murder saga); Jackie Burroughs wins for best lead actress in a continuing dramatic role; Art Hindle wins for best lead actor in continuing role; Frank Mankiewicz wins for best director in miniseries; for Love and Hate; Michelle St. John wins for best lead actress in a miniseries; Kenneth Welsh wins for best lead actor (Love and Hate); Where The Spirit Lives wins for best TV movie; about native residential schools; awarded by Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television Arts.
1987 Quebec Quebec - Ron Lapointe appointed head coach of the NHL Nordiques, replacing André Savard.
1974 Washington DC - Pierre Elliott Trudeau 1919- visits Washington for talks with US President Gerald Ford.
1973 Ottawa Ontario - Trudeau government passes bill outlawing wiretapping and other forms of electronic surveillance except by police forces.
1973 USA - Alfred Carl Fuller 1885-1973 dies at age 88; born in Nova Scotia Jan 13, 1885; manufacturer, marketer, founder of the Fuller Brush Co.
1972 Ottawa Ontario - Ottawa starts 3-year $350 million program to help provinces and municipalities create jobs; plus extra $150 million for federal job-creation programs.
1970 Montreal Quebec - British Trade Commissioner James Cross finally released in return for safe passage to Cuba for his FLQ kidnappers; three weeks later, Pierre Laporte's suspected kidnappers, Paul and Jacques Rose and Francis Simard, are arrested south of Montreal.
1970 Montreal Quebec - Claude Ruel resigns as head coach of the NHL Canadiens.
1969 Montreal Quebec - Power Corporation sells three media properties: CKAC, CHLT and CHLT-TV.
1967 Cap-de-la-Madeleine Quebec - FLQ terrorists steal $9,000 worth of firearms and munitions from a store in Cap-de-la-Madeleine.
1957 Montreal Quebec - Montreal Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs skate to a 0-0 draw.
1950 Ottawa Ontario - Ottawa and the provinces hold a conference on Canada's fiscal problems.
1950 Chinnampo Korea - Royal Canadian Navy Captain J.V. Brock in command of the six UN destroyers of Task Element, receives an order to help prepare for a withdrawal from Inchon; in HMCS Cayuga, Brock leads his destroyers - three Canadian ships, two Australian and one American - 32 km up the narrow Taedong River at night to Chinnampo, the port of Pyongyang; the channel is seeded with North Korean mines and two ships run aground and turn back for repairs; Dec. 05, at Chinnampo, the force guards the evacuating troops against enemy attack, then starts shelling the port to destroy railway lines, docks and huge supplies of strategic materials which had to be left behind; Dec. 06 all ships clear of the river.
1944 Moro River Italy - The 1st Canadian Infantry Division reaches the Moro River after taking control of the bridgehead on the Sangro River.
1937 Canada - Canadian department stores display Dionne quintuplet dolls; Shirley Temple dolls still remain the favourite choice for Christmas.
1926 Toronto Ontario - Ottawa Senators beat the University of Toronto, 10-7, in the 14th Grey Cup game.
1920 Toronto Ontario - University of Toronto beats Toronto Argonauts, 16-3, in the 8th Grey Cup game.
1914 Ottawa Ontario - W.F. Taylor of Winnipeg founding president of the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association; mandate to promote hockey, and an amateur code; the CAHA manages the Allan Cup and will introduce the Memorial Cup for junior hockey in 1919.
1909 Montreal Quebec - J. Ambrose O'Brien founds the Canadian Athletic Club, as a founding member of the NHA; the uniform is a navy blue sweater with white narrow bands at the shoulders connected to a band across the chest, with a white 'C' in the centre of the chest band; in 1917 will be a founding member of the NHL, as the Club de Hockey Canadien (CHC).
1905 Quebec Quebec - Fans in Quebec riot after Sara Bernhardt performance.
1885 Montreal Quebec - Memorial mass for Louis Riel held in Montreal.
1884 Calgary Alberta - First meeting of Calgary's Town Council held in Boynton Hall. Mayor George Murdock, and councillors S.J. Clarke, N.J. Lindsay, J.H. Milward and S.J. Hogg pass several motions; adopt railway time, approve design for Corporation Seal, petition NWT government for power to issue licenses and retain the proceeds.
1866 London England - Canada, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick delegates meet Imperial government in London to draw up an act uniting the provinces of British North America, much discussion over Section 93, which protected separate schools in Quebec and Ontario, but not in Nova Scotia or New Brunswick; London conference lasts until Dec. 24.
1856 Ottawa Ontario - Government permits free transit of goods in bond through Canada to and from US destinations.
1838 Windsor Ontario - John Prince 1796-1879 leads Essex Militia in rout of 400 American raiders at the Battle of Windsor; four invaders executed.
1837 St-Hyacinthe Quebec - Lt-Col Charles Gore leads British troops into St-Hyacinthe from St-Charles.
1837 Toronto Ontario - John Rolph & Samuel Lount assemble rebel force at Montgomery's Tavern on Yonge Street in Hogg's Hollow.
1825 Quebec Quebec - Mgr. Octave Plessis dies at Quebec; replaced by Mgr. Panet ad Bishop of Quebec on Dec. 10.
1674 Chicago Illinois - Jacques Marquette 1637-1675 reaches Chicago River and winters on the site of Chicago, a name the local Indians give to a variety of wild onion.
1651 Montreal Quebec - Play Heraclitus performed at Montreal.
1615 New York State - Samuel de Champlain c1570-1635 leads defeated Huron war party back to Cahiagué in Huronia; arrives Dec. 23.

End of C/P.

 

[henric]

December 5th 2013 - This Date in History.


63 BC – Cicero gives the fourth and final of the Catiline Orations.
633 – Fourth Council of Toledo takes place.
1082 – Ramon Berenguer II, Count of Barcelona is assassinated.
1408 – Emir Edigu of Golden Horde reaches Moscow.
1484 – Pope Innocent VIII issues the Summis desiderantes, a papal bull that deputizes Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger as inquisitors to root out alleged witchcraft in Germany.
1492 – Christopher Columbus becomes the first European to set foot on the island of Hispaniola (now Haiti and the Dominican Republic).
1496 – King Manuel I of Portugal issues a decree of expulsion of "heretics" from the country.
1757 – Seven Years' War: Battle of Leuthen – Frederick II of Prussia leads Prussian forces to a decisive victory over Austrian forces under Prince Charles Alexander of Lorraine.
1766 – In London, James Christie holds his first sale.
1775 – At Fort Ticonderoga, Henry Knox begins his historic transport of artillery to Cambridge, Massachusetts.
1815 – Foundation of Maceió in Brazil.
1831 – Former US President John Quincy Adams takes his seat in the House of Representatives.
1847 – Jefferson Davis is elected to the US senate, his first political post.
1848 – California Gold Rush: In a message before the U.S. Congress, US President James K. Polk confirms that large amounts of gold had been discovered in California.
1865 – Chincha Islands War: Peru allies with Chile against Spain.
1876 – The Brooklyn Theater Fire kills at least 278 people in Brooklyn, NY.
1914 – The Italian Parliament proclaims the neutrality of the country.
1920 – Dimitrios Rallis forms a government in Greece.
1932 – German-born Swiss physicist Albert Einstein is granted an American visa.
1933 – Prohibition in the United States ends: Utah becomes the 36th U.S. state to ratify the Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution, thus establishing the required 75% of states needed to enact the amendment (this overturned the 18th Amendment which had made the manufacture, sale, or transportation of alcohol illegal in the United States).
1934 – Abyssinia Crisis: Italian troops attack Wal Wal in Abyssinia, taking four days to capture the city.
1936 – The Soviet Union adopts a new constitution and the Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic is established as a full Union Republic of the USSR.
1941 – World War II: In the Battle of Moscow, Georgy Zhukov launches a massive Soviet counter-attack against the German army, with the biggest offensive launched against Army Group Centre.
1941 – World War II: Great Britain declares war on Finland, Hungary and Romania.
1943 – World War II: U.S. Army Air Force begins attacking Germany's secret weapons bases in Operation Crossbow.
1945 – Flight 19 is lost in the Bermuda Triangle.
1952 – Great Smog of 1952: A cold fog descends upon London, combining with air pollution and killing at least 12,000 in the weeks and months that follow.
1955 – The American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations merge and form the AFL-CIO.
1955 – E.D. Nixon and Rosa Parks lead the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
1957 – Sukarno expels all Dutch people from Indonesia.
1958 – Subscriber Trunk Dialling (STD) is inaugurated in the United Kingdom by Queen Elizabeth II when she speaks to the Lord Provost in a call from Bristol to Edinburgh.
1958 – The Preston By-pass, the UK's first stretch of motorway, opens to traffic for the first time. It is now part of the M6 and M55 motorways.
1964 – Vietnam War: For his heroism in battle earlier in the year, Captain Roger Donlon is awarded the first Medal of Honor of the war.
1969 – The four node ARPANET network is established
1976 – The United Nations General Assembly adopts Pakistan's resolution on security of non-Nuclear States.
1977 – Egypt breaks diplomatic relations with Syria, Libya, Algeria, Iraq and South Yemen. The move is in retaliation for the Declaration of Tripoli against Egypt.
1978 – The Soviet Union signs a "friendship treaty" with the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan.
1983 – Dissolution of the Military Junta in Argentina.
1983 – ICIMOD is established and inaugurated with its headquarters in Kathmandu, Nepal, and legitimised through an Act of Parliament in Nepal in the same year.
1993 – The mayor of Wien (Vienna), Helmut Zilk, is injured by a letter bomb.
1995 – The Sri Lankan government announces the conquest of Tamil stronghold of Jaffna.
2004 – The Civil Partnership Act comes into effect in the United Kingdom, and the first civil partnership is registered there.
2005 – The Lake Tanganyika earthquake causes significant damage, mostly in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
2006 – Commodore Frank Bainimarama overthrows the government in Fiji.
2007 – Westroads Mall massacre: A gunman opens fire with a semi-automatic rifle at an Omaha, Nebraska, mall, killing eight people before taking his own life.


Today's Canadian Headline...


1902 WIRELESS ACROSS THE ATLANTIC
Glace Bay, Nova Scotia - Italian engineer Guglielmo Marconi 1874-1937 transmits the first readable wireless radio signals 3,200 km across the Atlantic from his station at Glace Bay, Cape Breton to Poldhu in Cornwall, England. Two years earlier, he had sent a message across the English Channel; on Dec. 12, 1901, he had sent the first transatlantic wireless test signal - the letter 'S' repeated over and over - from Poldhu to his assistant Percy Wright Paget flying a box kite trailing a 121 metre long copper wire antenna on Signal Hill, St. John's. Nfld. The Canadian government gave Marconi $80 000 to set up wireless operations at Glace Bay, after nervous Newfoundland undersea cable companies, claiming a monopoly on transatlantic messages, booted him off the island. The Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of Canada Ltd. - today's Canadian Marconi Company - was chartered in 1902.


In Other Events...

1997 Montreal Quebec - Quebec police arrest Hell's Angels motorcycle gang chief Maurice 'Mom' Boucher on suspicion of the murder of two prison guards; fail to get a conviction one year later.
1996 Paris France - Quebec singer Robert Charlebois receives the Grande médaille de la chanson.
1990 Ottawa Ontario - Canadian Broadcasting Corporation/Radio Canada announces layoffs of 1,100 employees.
1987 Montreal Quebec - Hydro-Quebec signs a long-term $7.2 billion supply contract with the state of Vermont.
1983 Ottawa Ontario - Roberta Bondar 1951-, Marc Garneau 1949-, Steven Maclean 1953-, Kenneth Money 1952-, Robert Thirsk 1953- and Bjarni Tryggvason 1954- chosen as Canada's first six astronauts for Space Shuttle work.
1983 Quebec - Hells Angels motorcycle gang invade Quebec to do battle with the Rock Machine.
1976 Oxford England - The first 4 Canadian women Rhodes Scholars are chosen.
1973 Montreal Quebec - Official opening of Maison Radio-Canada in Montreal.
1970 Toronto Ontario - The Stanley Cup, Conn Smythe Trophy and Bill Masterson Trophy are all stolen from the NHL Hall of Fame; later recovered.
1970 Montreal Quebec - British Trade Commissioner James Cross returns to London after two days of debriefing following his release by FLQ terrorists.
1967 Ottawa Ontario - The Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism releases first Report.
1962 Quebec Quebec - Marie-Claire Kirkland-Casgrain 1926- appointed Minister Without Portfolio; first woman given Quebec Cabinet post.
1960 Ottawa Ontario - Charlotte Whitton re-elected Mayor of Ottawa.
1950 Nashville Tennessee - Nova Scotia's Hank Snow has a #1 country hit single with 'IÕm Moving On'.
1947 Ottawa Ontario - Opening of another session of the 20th Parliament.
1940 Atlantic - First Canadian corvettes join Battle of the Atlantic.
1940 Britain - Torpedoed Canadian destroyer 'Saguenay' limps into British port after taking a hit from a German torpedo; first Canadian warship torpedoed.
1939 Ottawa Ontario - Wartime Prices and Trade Board given more control over prices and supply; investigative, price-fixing and licensing powers.
1936 Toronto Ontario - Sarnia Imperials beat Ottawa Rough Riders, 26-20 in the 24th Grey Cup game.
1925 Toronto Ontario - Ottawa Senators beat Winnipeg Tammany Tigers, 24-1, in the 13th Grey Cup game.
1924 Toronto Ontario - NHL Hamilton Tiger Red Green [seriously - Ed.]scores 5 goals as his hockey team beats the Toronto Maple Leafs 10-5.
1924 Calgary Alberta - Calgary Police Chief Ritchie says his police cannot stop the Ku Klux Klan from recruiting in Calgary, if no laws are broken.
1914 Toronto Ontario - Toronto Argonauts beat the University of Toronto, 14-2, in the 6th Grey Cup game.
1912 Ottawa Ontario - Robert Borden proposes a gift of $35 million to Britain to assist with rearmament.
1893 Toronto Ontario - F. B. Featherstonhaugh buys first electric car in Toronto; built by Dickson Cartage Works.
1892 Ottawa Ontario - Mackenzie Bowell 1823-1917 appointed to the Senate; later Canada's 5th Prime Minister.
1892 Ottawa Ontario - John Sparrow David Thompson 1845-1894 sworn in as Prime Minister; former Nova Scotia Premier and Justice, Supreme Court of Nova Scotia ; serves until his death at Windsor Castle, Dec. 12, 1894.
1890 USA - Quebec strongman Louis Cyr lifts 490 lbs with one finger; working with Barnum circus.
1869 Winnipeg Manitoba - English and French Red River settlers publish List of Rights, with 14 demands, including the right to elect their own legislature, the use of French and English in the legislature, representation in the Canadian Parliament, and free land grants.
1837 Montreal Quebec - Martial law proclaimed in Montreal.
1807 Quebec - Complains made that the fur trade is corrupting the morals of the people.
1775 Quebec Quebec - Richard Montgomery 1736-1775 begins American siege of Quebec with aid of Benedict Arnold; will try to capture fortress before onset of winter.
1749 Montreal Quebec - Pierre de La Vérendrye 1685-1749 dies at Montreal; soldier, farmer, fur trader, explorer, born at Trois-Rivières Nov. 17, 1685; he and his sons were the first to bring the French fur trade from Lake Superior to the lower Saskatchewan and Missouri rivers.
1700 Montreal Quebec - Severe influenza epidemic hits the people of Montreal.
1560 Paris France - King Charles IX 1550-1574 starts reign; to 1574; on death of François II.

End of C/P.

 

[henric]

View attachment 6619


December 6th 2013 - This Date in History.


Events:C/P.


1060 РB̩la I is crowned king of Hungary.
1240 – Mongol invasion of Rus': Kiev under Danylo of Halych and Voivode Dmytro falls to the Mongols under Batu Khan.
1534 – The city of Quito in Ecuador is founded by Spanish settlers led by Sebastián de Belalcázar.
1648 – Colonel Thomas Pride of the New Model Army purges the Long Parliament of MPs sympathetic to King Charles I of England, in order for the King's trial to go ahead; came to be known as "Pride's Purge".
1704 – Battle of Chamkaur: During the Mughal-Sikh Wars, an outnumbered Sikh Khalsa defeats a Mughal army.
1745 – Charles Edward Stuart's army begins retreat during the second Jacobite Rising.
1768 – The first edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica is published.
1790 – The U.S. Congress moves from New York City to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1865 – The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, banning slavery.
1877 – The first edition of the Washington Post is published.
1884 – The Washington Monument in Washington D.C. is completed.
1897 – London becomes the world's first city to host licensed taxicabs.
1904 – Theodore Roosevelt announced his "Corollary" to the Monroe Doctrine stating that the United States would intervene in the Western Hemisphere should Latin American governments prove incapable or unstable.
1907 – A coal mine explosion at Monongah, West Virginia kills 362 workers.
1916 – World War I: The Central Powers capture Bucharest.
1917 – Finland declares independence from Russia.
1917 – Halifax Explosion: In Canada, a munitions explosion kills more than 1,900 people and destroys part of the City of Halifax, Nova Scotia.
1917 – World War I: USS Jacob Jones is the first American destroyer to be sunk by enemy action when it is torpedoed by German submarine SM U-53.
1921 – The Anglo-Irish Treaty is signed in London by British and Irish representatives.
1922 – One year to the day after the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, the Irish Free State comes into existence.
1928 – The government of Colombia sends military forces to suppress a month-long strike by United Fruit Company workers, resulting in an unknown number of deaths.
1933 – U.S. federal judge John M. Woolsey rules that James Joyce's novel Ulysses is not obscene.
1941 – World War II: The United Kingdom and Canada declare war on Finland in support of the Soviet Union during the Continuation War.
1947 – The Everglades National Park in Florida is dedicated.
1953 – Vladimir Nabokov completes his controversial novel Lolita.
1956 – A violent water polo match between Hungary and the USSR takes place during the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, against the backdrop of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution.
1957 – Project Vanguard: A launchpad explosion of Vanguard TV3 thwarts the first United States attempt to launch a satellite into Earth orbit.
1965 – Pakistan's Islamic Ideology Advisory Committee recommends that Islamic Studies be made a compulsory subject for Muslim students from primary to graduate level.
1967 – Adrian Kantrowitz performed the first human heart transplant in the United States.
1969 – Meredith Hunter is killed by the Hells Angels during a The Rolling Stones's concert at the Altamont Speedway in California.
1971 – Pakistan severs diplomatic relations with India following New Delhi's recognition of Bangladesh.
1973 – The Twenty-fifth Amendment: The United States House of Representatives votes 387 to 35 to confirm Gerald Ford as Vice President of the United States (on November 27, the Senate confirmed him 92 to 3).
1975 – The Troubles: Fleeing from the police, a Provisional IRA unit takes a couple hostage in Balcombe Street, London, beginning a six-day siege.
1977 – South Africa grants independence to Bophuthatswana, although it is not recognized by any other country.
1978 – Spain approves its latest constitution in a referendum.
1982 – The Troubles: The Irish National Liberation Army bombed a pub frequented by British soldiers in Ballykelly, Northern Ireland. It killed eleven soldiers and six civilians.
1988 – The Australian Capital Territory is granted self-government.
1989 – The École Polytechnique massacre (or Montreal Massacre): Marc Lépine, an anti-feminist gunman, murders 14 young women at the École Polytechnique in Montreal.
1991 – In Croatia, forces of the Yugoslav People's Army bombard Dubrovnik after laying siege to the city since May.
1992 – The Babri Mosque in Ayodhya, India is demolished, leading to widespread riots causing the death of over 1500 people.
1997 – A Russian Antonov An-124 cargo plane crashes into an apartment complex near Irkutsk, Siberia, killing 67.
2005 – Several villagers are shot dead during protests in Dongzhou, China.
2005 – An Iranian Air Force C-130 military transport aircraft crashes into a ten-floor apartment building in a residential area of Tehran, killing all 84 on board and 44 more civilians.
2006 – NASA reveals photographs taken by Mars Global Surveyor suggesting the presence of liquid water on Mars.
2008 – The 2008 Greek riots break out upon the killing of a 15-year-old boy, Alexandros Grigoropoulos, by a police officer.




Today's Canadian Headline...


1921 CANADIAN WOMEN EXERCISE FIRST FEDERAL VOTE
Canada - Agnes McPhail 1890-1954 is elected to the House of Commons for the United Farmers of Ontario in the first election in which all Canadian women exercise their right to vote (wives of soldiers could vote during World War I); a country schoolteacher, she is Canada's first female MP. Mackenzie King 1874-1950 wins the election with 40.7% of popular vote; gets 116 seats to 50 for Arthur Meighen's Conservatives, 64 for Progressives, 5 others; Meighen loses own seat in Portage La Prairie; CCF member J. S. Woodsworth 1874-1942 is the first socialist elected to the House of Commons.

1917
Halifax Nova Scotia -
Downtown Halifax is blown to pieces as a French munitions freighter, the Mont Blanc, coming through the Narrows carrying 2,300 tons of picric acid, 200 tons of TNT, 35 tons of high octane gasoline, and 10 tons of gun cotton, collides with the Belgium steamship Imo, outbound to New York City, at 8:45 am. The Mont Blanc is propelled towards the shore by the collision, its picric acid ablaze, and the crew abandon ship, after failing to alert the harbour of the peril. Minutes later the blazing ship brushes by a pier, setting it ablaze. The Halifax Fire Department respond quickly, and are just positioning their engine up to the nearest hydrant when the Mont Blanc explodes at 9:05 am in a blinding white flash. The blast levels downtown Halifax, killing 2,000, injuring over 8,000, leaving 10,000 homeless, and doing $50 million damage. The shock wave shatters windows at Truro, 100 km away, and the sound can be heard in Charlottetown. A recent theory suggests that this, the greatest manmade explosion before the atomic bomb, may have been due to enemy sabotage.


In Other Events...

1996 Montreal Quebec - Radio-Canada International announces it will have to stop broadcasting March 31, 1997, unless a new source of funds can be found; campaign to save RCI temporarily successful; backed by Heritage Minister Sheila Copps, who said that 'Canada's voice to the world 'must not die.'
1995 Los Angeles, California - Canada's Joni Mitchell honoured with Billboard's Century Award.
1995 Montreal Quebec - Montreal Canadiens trade goaltender Patrick Roy to the Colorado Avalanche for Jocelyn Thibault; Roy and GM Réjean Houle did not see eye to eye.
1995 Ottawa Ontario - New firearms legislation comes into force on the anniversary of the Montreal massacre; bans imports of automatic assault weapons; new rules and regulations for owning a firearm include a waiting period to buy guns, safe-storage rules, and full registration in stages.
1994 Quebec Quebec - Premier Jacques Parizeau tables draft bill declaring Quebec a sovereign country with Canadian economic association; sets terms for the referendum debate; PQ government also sets up regional commissions, invites Quebec people to contribute their ideas for a new Quebec society; 50,000 people will respond, but the Quebec Liberal Party boycotts the hearings.
1992 Oshawa Ontario - NHL star Eric Lindros arrested after an altercation with a woman in a bar; charges later dropped.
1992 Edmonton Lberta - Ralph Klein wins the leadership of the Alberta Progressive Conservative Party; former Mayor of Calgary.
1990 Tampa Florida - Bruce Firestone heads group awarded new National Hockey League franchise, Ottawa Senators, for 1992-93 season; an original NHL team, the Senators started operating in 1917; but moved to St. Louis as the Eagles in 1934.
1989 Montreal Quebec - Supreme Court of Canada denies Quebec's claim to veto over constitutional amendment; says constitution unassailable.
1989 Montreal Quebec - Marc Lepine, age 25, armed with a Sturm Ruger Mini-14 semi-automatic rifle, knives and bandoliers of ammunitions, kills 14 women engineering students in a classroom at the École Polytechnique, Université de Montréal, wounds 13 others, shouting 'You're all a bunch of feminists'; then turns the gun on himself. The dead: Genevieve Bergeron, 21: Hélène Colgan, 23; Nathalie Croteau, 23; Barbara Daigneault, 22; Anne-Marie Edward, 21; Maud Haviernick, 29; Barbara Maria Klucznik, 31; Maryse Laganière, 25; Maryse Leclair, 23; Anne-Marie Lemay, 22; Sonia Pelletier, 28; Michèle Richard, 21; Annie St-Arneault, 23; Annie Turcotte, 21.
1973 Ottawa Ontario - Ottawa to establish national oil company; part of national oil policy; origin of PetroCanada.
1967 Montreal Quebec - Opening of 4.8 km of walkways under Montreal; from Place Bonaventure to Place Ville Marie; the world's largest underground walkway.
1954 Ottawa Ontario - Charlotte Whitton reelected Mayor of Ottawa.
1938 Sydney, Nova Scotia - Cable at Sydney Mines breaks, sending a riding rake plummeting into the mine; 16 killed.
1930 Toronto Ontario - Toronto Balmy Beach defeat Regina Roughriders, 11-6 18th Grey Cup game.
1928 Ottawa Ontario - John Aird appointed by Mackenzie King to chair the Royal Commission on Radio Broadcasting, and to discuss the merits of public broadcasting; need to stop privately owned Canadian stations falling into American hands; also need to provide alternative to US programming flooding across the border; assisted by Charles Bowman, editor of the Ottawa Citizen; submits report Sept. 11, 1929; recommends creation of a national broadcasting company like Britain's BBC, to develop a service capable of 'fostering a national spirit and interpreting national citizenship'.
1927 Ottawa Ontario - Ottawa city council approves installation of first automatic traffic light control system.
1916 BC - CPR completes Connaught Tunnel 8 km through Macdonald Mountain in the Selkirk Range; opens Dec. 09; Canada's longest rail tunnel took two years to blast, and cost $2 million; built to avoid the climb over Rogers' Pass, and eliminate 8 km of snowsheds that protected the main line from frequent avalanches.
1911 Calgary Alberta - Calgary judge convicts two dairy delivery men for theft after they removed a rival firm's milk bottles from doorsteps and milk chutes, to get annoyed customers to switch companies.
1908 Baddeck, Nova Scotia - Alexander Graham Bell's Aerial Experiment Association test original Silver Dart airplane, made of steel tube, bamboo, friction tape, wire, wood, and covered with rubberized silk balloon-cloth; designer J.A.D. McCurdy will make the first controlled powered flight in Canada Feb. 23, 1909 from the ice at Baddeck.
1907 Baddeck, Nova Scotia - Thomas Selfridge takes first recorded flight in Canada of a heavier-than-air machine; he is lifted into the air in a tetrahedral kite, Cygnet I, designed by the Aerial Experimental Association (AEA) with funding from Alexander Graham Bell's wife Mabel; the kite crashes, but Selfridge is not seriously injured.
1900 Lévis Quebec - Quebec parliamentary reporter Alphonse Desjardins 1841-1912 opens the first credit union in North America; goals are to fight usury, improve the living conditions of workers, let French Canadians build savings and slow the exodus to US mill towns; the first branch is what is today les Caisses populaires Desjardins.
1880 Edmonton Alberta - First issue of the Edmonton Bulletin newspaper published.
1869 Ottawa Ontario - Governor General John Young, Baron Lisgar 1807-1876 proclaims pardon for Metis if they disperse peacefully.
1866 London England - Alexander T. Galt pushes through the adoption of draft Article 93, guaranteeing minority education rights in Ontario and Quebec; at Confederation Conference in the Westminster Palace Hotel.
1838 Montreal Quebec - Montreal court martial begins for Lower Canada rebels accused of high treason; 9 are acquitted and 99 condemned to death; by May 01, 12 will be executed, 58 deported to Australia and 27 freed under a caution.
1837 Moore's Corner (Philipsburgh), Quebec - Militia Colonel Kemp and 300 Canadian volunteers ambush a group of 80 rebels at 8 pm coming across the US border with newly acquired weapons and 2 cannon; during the 20 minute skirmish, 4 Patriotes are captured, one killed; the rest retreat across the border when Colborne dispatches 600 British regulars and 3 cannon to St-Armand.
1837 Ontario - Rebel leader Dr. John Rolph flees Upper Canada for the US.
1752 Halifax, Nova Scotia - John Bushell 1715-1761 publishes 8-page pamphlet for government; first book published in Canada.
1678 Niagara Ontario - François de Salignac de La Mothe-Fénélon arrives at Niagara River with Hennepin from Fort Frontenac; they observe Niagara Falls the next day.

End of C/P.

 

[henric]

December 7th 2013 - This Date in History.


Events:C/P.

43 BC – Marcus Tullius Cicero is assassinated.
574 – Emperor Justin II retires due to recurring seizures of insanity. He abdicates the throne in favor of his general Tiberius, proclaiming him Caesar.
1724 – Tumult of Thorn: Religious unrest is followed by the execution of nine Protestant citizens and the mayor of Thorn (Toruń) by Polish authorities.
1732 – The Royal Opera House opens at Covent Garden, London, England.
1776 – Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, arranges to enter the American military as a major general.
1787 – Delaware becomes the first state to ratify the United States Constitution.
1862 – American Civil War: Battle of Prairie Grove, Arkansas.
1869 – American outlaw Jesse James commits his first confirmed bank robbery in Gallatin, Missouri.
1917 – World War I: The United States declares war on Austria-Hungary.
1930 – W1XAV in Boston, Massachusetts telecasts video from the CBS radio orchestra program, The Fox Trappers. The telecast also includes the first television commercial in the United States, an advertisement for I.J. Fox Furriers, who sponsored the radio show.
1936 – Australian cricketer Jack Fingleton becomes the first player to score centuries in four consecutive Test innings.
1941 – World War II: Attack on Pearl Harbor – The Imperial Japanese Navy carries out a surprise attack on the United States Pacific Fleet and its defending Army and Marine air forces at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. (For Japan's near-simultaneous attacks on Eastern Hemisphere targets, see December 8.)
1946 – A fire at the Winecoff Hotel in Atlanta, Georgia, kills 119 people, the deadliest hotel fire in U.S. history.
1949 – Chinese Civil War: The government of the Republic of China moves from Nanking to Taipei, Taiwan.
1962 – Prince Rainier III of Monaco revises the principality's constitution, devolving some of his power to advisory and legislative councils.
1963 – Instant replay makes its debut during an American Army–Navy football game.
1965 – Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras I simultaneously revoke mutual excommunications that had been in place since 1054.
1971 – Pakistan President Yahya Khan announces the formation of a coalition government with Nurul Amin as Prime Minister and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto as Deputy Prime Minister.
1972 – Apollo 17, the last Apollo moon mission, is launched. The crew takes the photograph known as The Blue Marble as they leave the Earth.
1975 – Indonesia invades East Timor.
1982 – In Texas, Charles Brooks, Jr., becomes the first person to be executed by lethal injection in the United States.
1983 – An Iberia Airlines Boeing 727 collides with an Aviaco DC-9 in dense fog while the two airliners are taxiing down the runway at Madrid–Barajas Airport, killing 93 people.
1987 – Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 1771 crashes near Paso Robles, California, killing all 43 on board, after a disgruntled passenger shoots his ex-boss traveling on the flight, then shoots both pilots and himself.
1988 – Spitak Earthquake: In Armenia an earthquake measuring 6.9 on the Richter scale kills more than 25,000, injures 30,000 and leaves 500,000 homeless out of a population of 3,500,000.
1988 – Yasser Arafat recognizes the right of Israel to exist.
1993 – The Long Island Rail Road massacre: Passenger Colin Ferguson murders six people and injures 19 others on the LIRR in Nassau County, New York.
1995 – The Galileo spacecraft arrives at Jupiter, a little more than six years after it was launched by Space Shuttle Atlantis during Mission STS-34.
1999 – A&M Records, Inc. v. Napster, Inc.: The Recording Industry Association of America sues the peer-to-peer file-sharing service Napster, alleging copyright infringement.
2003 – The Conservative Party of Canada is officially registered, following the merger of the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada.
2005 – Rigoberto Alpizar, a passenger on American Airlines Flight 924 who allegedly claimed to have a bomb, is shot and killed by a team of U.S. federal air marshals at Miami International Airport.
2005 РAnte Gotovina, a Croatian army general accused of war crimes, is captured in the Playa de las Am̩ricas, Tenerife, by Spanish police.
2006 – A tornado strikes Kensal Green, North West London, seriously damaging about 150 properties.
2007 – The Hebei Spirit oil spill begins in South Korea after a crane barge that had broken free from a tug collides with the Very Large Crude Carrier, Hebei Spirit.



Today's Canadian Headline...


1941 WAR WITH JAPAN
Ottawa Ontario - Canada the first of the Western allies to declare war on Japan, Finland, Hungary, and Rumania; shortly after Japanese bomb US base at Pearl Harbour, Hawaii. US, Britain and other allied countries follow the next day.

1678

Niagara Falls Ontario - Louis Hennepin 1626-c1705 first European to describe Niagara Falls; with Dominique La Motte de Lucière.


In Other Events...


1996 Montreal Quebec - Montigny Commission issues a report, 'Reconnaissance et Interdépendance', to the Quebec Liberal Party on the evolution of Canadian federalism .
1995 Victoria BC - British Columbia Assembly passes regulations for car makers to provide less polluting vehicles; first province in Canada.
1990 Montreal Quebec - Jean Duceppe dies at age 67; actor, father of Bloc quŽbŽcois leader Gilles Duceppe.
1990 Montreal Quebec - Jean-Paul Lemieux dies at age 86; painter.
1982 London England - Hugh Hambleton 1922- convicted of spying for Soviet Union in the 1950's; Laval University professor.
1982 Vancouver BC - Harry Jerome 1940-1982 dies; track and field athlete, teacher, born at Prince Albert, Saskatchewan Sept. 30, 1940; won the 100 m bronze in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, and the 100 m gold in the 1967 Pan-American Games; first man to hold both the world 100 yard and 100 metre records; first Canadian to hold a world track record.
1980 Montreal Quebec - Quebec Premier René Lévesque 1922-1987 tells a crowd of 14,000 at the Forum that Trudeau's plan for unilateral patriation of the constitution is a 'a coup d'etat by a dictator'.
1978 Ottawa Ontario - Edward Richard Schreyer 1935- appointed Governor General of Canada, assumes office on Jan. 22, 1979; until 1984.
1978 Montreal Quebec - Fire damages the Sacré-Coeur chapel in Notre-Dame church.
1977 Hartford Connecticut - Gordie Howe of the WHA New England Whalers scores his 1,000th professional goal in a game against the Birmingham Bulls.
1973 Korea - Atomic Energy of Canada sells $250 million CANDU nuclear reactor to South Korea.
1970 Ottawa Ontario - Royal Commission on the Status of Women issues 488-page report with 167 recommendations on day-care, equal pay for work of equal value, maternity leave, birth control, abortion on demand, pensions and family law; instituted by Lester Pearson Feb. 16, 1967, in response to a campaign led by Ontario activist Laura Sabia and a coalition of 32 women's voluntary groups; chaired by journalist and broadcaster Florence Bird, with commissioners Jacques Henripin, professor of demography, John Humphrey, professor of law; Lola Lange, farmer and community activist; Jeanne Lapointe, professor of literature, Elsie Gregory MacGill, aeronautical engineer; and Doris Ogilvie, judge. RCSW held 6 months of public hearings across Canada, and heard 468 briefs.
1961 Montreal Quebec - Jean Béliveau appointed Captain of the NHL Canadiens.
1961 Tokyo Japan - Bank of Montreal opens branch in Tokyo; first Canadian bank in Japan.
1960 Ottawa Ontario - RCMP file first report to Justice Minister Davie Fulton on relations of Pierre Sevigny 1917- , Deputy Minister of National Defence, with Gerda Munsinger, an East German prostitute; affair a security risk; no other action taken; secret until March, 1966, when the affair comes out in the House of Commons and becomes a major scandal.
1953 Montreal Quebec - Mercantile Bank of Canada starts operations, with head offices in Montreal; first foreign-owned bank; subsidiary of first National City Bank of New York.
1944 Ottawa Ontario - William Lyon Mackenzie King 1874-1950 wins Commons' vote of confidence in wake of conscription measure.
1941 Atlantic - Royal Canadian Navy corvette HMCS Windflower lost in a collision in the North Atlantic.
1940 Toronto Ontario - Ottawa Rough Riders win second game and 28th Grey Cup, beating Toronto Balmy Beach 12-5 in two game total points competition; the only two-game series ever played.
1935 Toronto Ontario - Winnipeg Blue Bombers, of the Western Interprovincial Football Union (WIFU) win the 23rd Grey Cup game; first western team to win the Grey Cup.
1918 Vancouver BC - Earthquake stops the Vancouver Block clock on Granville Street; the clock has only stopped a few times since it was built in 1912; in a June 23, 1946 earthquake, and on New Years Eve, 1952.
1907 Canada - Christmas seals first sold to help fight tuberculosis.
1900 Quebec - Napoléon Parent elected Premier of Quebec.
1899 Winnipeg Manitoba - Hugh John Macdonald, Sir John A. Macdonald's son, leads Manitoba Conservative Party to provincial election victory.
1876 Charlottetown PEI - SS Northern Light starts first regular service from Prince Edward Island to the mainland.
1869 Winnipeg Manitoba - John Christian Schultz 1840-1896 captured with Charles Mair and Thomas Scott, a Canada Firster and Orangeman; leading a group of 45 Ontario settlers from Portage La Prairie on their way to take over Fort Garry; imprisoned by Louis Riel's provisional government.
1863 Cape Cod, Massachusetts - Party of 16 Confederates hijack American coastal steamer Chesapeake and sail it to Saint John, NB, for refueling, then to Nova Scotian waters, where it is recaptured by the USS Dacotah and towed into Halifax harbour; US vice-consul charges Nova Scotians with violation of the Webster-Ashburton Treaty, but the Chesapeake Affair soon blows over.
1837 Montreal Quebec - Col. Charles Gore returns to Montreal with his British regulars after fighting Patriote rebels at St-Denis and St-Charles.
1833 Montreal Quebec - Journal 'L'Abeille Canadienne' first published in Montreal.
1827 Stellarton, Nova Scotia - Canada's first steam engine starts operating on the Albion Railway at Stellarton.
1770 Churchill Manitoba - Samuel Hearne 1745-1792 sets out west from Fort Prince of Wales on Hudson Bay on his third expedition to find a passage, by river or sea, across the Barren Lands; with Chipewyan chief Matonabee c1737-1782; travel to Alcantara Lake, and then north to the Coppermine River; first European to see the Arctic Ocean.
1729 Toronto Ontario - Mississauga Indians sign treaty giving up title to 5 million hectares, including Norfolk, Wentworth and Haldimand counties.
1677 Quebec Quebec - Benediction and opening of the Quebec Seminary.
1649 Huronia Ontario - Jesuit priest Charles Garnier killed by Iroquois during attack on St-Jean mission; canonized by Pope Pius XI on June 29, 1930.

End of C/P.

 

[henric]

December 8th 2013 - This Date in History.


Events:C/P.


395 – Later Yan is defeated by its former vassal Northern Wei at the Battle of Canhe Slope.
757 – Du Fu returns to Chang'an as a member of Emperor Xuanzong's court, after having escaped the city during the An Lushan Rebellion.
1432 – The first battle between the forces of Švitrigaila and Sigismund Kęstutaitis is fought near the town of Oszmiana (Ashmyany), launching the most active phase of the Lithuanian Civil War.
1660 – A woman (either Margaret Hughes or Anne Marshall) appears on an English public stage for the first time, in the role of Desdemona in a production of Shakespeare's play Othello.
1813 – Premier of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony.
1854 – In his Apostolic constitution Ineffabilis Deus, Pope Pius IX proclaims the dogmatic definition of Immaculate Conception, which holds that the Virgin Mary was conceived free of original sin.
1907 – King Gustaf V of Sweden accedes to the Swedish throne.
1912 – Leaders of the German Empire hold an Imperial War Council to discuss the possibility that war might break out.
1914 – World War I: A squadron of Britain's Royal Navy defeats an inferior squadron of the Imperial German High Seas Fleet in the Battle of the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic.
1927 – The Brookings Institution, one of the United States' oldest think tanks, is founded through the merger of three organizations that had been created by philanthropist Robert S. Brookings.
1941 – World War II: U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt declares December 7 to be "a date which will live in infamy", after which the U.S. declares war on Japan.
1941 – World War II: Japanese forces simultaneously invade Malaya, Thailand, Hong Kong, the Philippines, and the Dutch East Indies. (See December 7 for the concurrent attack on Pearl Harbor in the Western Hemisphere.)
1949 – The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East is established to provide aid to Palestinian refugees who left their homes during the 1948 Palestinian exodus.
1953 – U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower delivers his "Atoms for Peace" speech, which leads to an American program to supply equipment and information on nuclear power to schools, hospitals, and research institutions around the world.
1962 – Workers at four New York City newspapers (this later increases to nine) go on strike for 114 days.
1963 – Pan Am Flight 214, a Boeing 707, is struck by lightning and crashes near Elkton, Maryland, killing all 81 people on board.
1966 – The Greek ship SS Heraklion sinks in a storm in the Aegean Sea, killing over 200.
1971 – Indo-Pakistani War: The Indian Navy launches an attack on West Pakistan's port city of Karachi.
1972 – United Airlines Flight 553 crashes after aborting its landing attempt at Chicago Midway International Airport, killing 45.
1974 – A plebiscite results in the abolition of monarchy in Greece.
1980 – John Lennon is murdered by a mentally unstable fan in front of The Dakota in New York City.
1982 – In Suriname, several opponents of the military government are killed.
1987 – The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty is signed.
1987 – Frank Vitkovic shoots and kills eight people at the Australia Post building in Melbourne, before jumping to his death.
1987 – The Alianza Lima air disaster occurs.
1987 – An Israeli army tank transporter kills four Palestinian refugees and injures seven others during a traffic accident at the Erez Crossing on the Israel–Gaza Strip border, sparking the First Intifada.
1988 – A United States Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt II crashes into an apartment complex in Remscheid, Germany, killing 5 people and injuring 50 others.
1991 – The leaders of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine sign an agreement dissolving the Soviet Union and establishing the Commonwealth of Independent States.
1991 – The Romanian Constitution is adopted in a referendum.
1998 – Eighty-one people are killed by armed groups in Algeria.
2004 – The Cuzco Declaration is signed in Cuzco, Peru, establishing the South American Community of Nations.
2007 – Three unidentified gunmen storm an office of Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan Peoples Party in Balochistan. Three PPP supporters are killed.
2009 – Bombings in Baghdad, Iraq, kill 127 and injure 448.
2010 – With the second launch of the SpaceX Falcon 9 and the first launch of the SpaceX Dragon, SpaceX becomes the first private company to successfully launch, orbit and recover a spacecraft.
2010 – The Japanese solar-sail spacecraft IKAROS passes the planet Venus at a distance of about 80,800 km.



Today's Canadian Headline...


1869
START OF RED RIVER REBELLION
Winnipeg Manitoba - Louis Riel 1844-1885 issues the Declaration of the People of Rupert's Land and the North West; declares that the sale to Canada of Rupert's Land (the HBC territory) without their consent entitles people to set up their own government; many in Canada privately agree, including Militia Minister George-Etienne Cartier.


In Other Events...


1997
Saskatchewan - Carlton Trail Railway (Omnitrax) takes over Warman Junction - Prince Albert and Speers Junction - Meadow Lake CN lines.
1995
Ottawa Ontario - Federal government announces $1.5-billion deal to privatize the country's air traffic control network, the first large-scale transfer of government services to the private sector.
1987
Montreal Quebec - Mafia mobster Frank Cotroni sentenced to 8 years in prison.
1981
Ottawa Ontario - Senate approves patriation package by 59 to 23; now sent to British Parliament for final approval; to end Canada's last colonial and legal tie with Britain.
1970
Toronto Ontario - John Parmenter Robarts Ontario Premier announces resignation after selection of new leader.
1969
Toronto Ontario - American rock guitarist Jimi Hendrix released on a charge of possession of hashish and heroin after he says he has 'outgrown' drugs; Hendrix will die of an overdose less than two years later.
1960
Havana Cuba - Fidel Castro's government purchases Cuban assets of the Royal Bank of Canada.
1956
Melbourne Australia - Closing of the 16th Olympiad in Melbourne. Canadians win two Golds - Gerry Ouellette for Smallbore Rifle - Prone, and the UBC Coxless Fours (Donald Arnold, Ignace d'Hondt, Lorne Loomer, Archie MacKinnon) for Rowing.
1953
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan - John Diefenbaker marries Olive Palmer.
1941
Hong Kong - Royal Rifles of Canada and Winnipeg Grenadiers, under command of Brigadier J.K. Lawson caught by Japanese invasion of Hong Kong; had not received training as front-line troops; first Canadian units to fight in World War II had almost no air or naval defences; at 8 am, Japanese aircraft destroy all 6 RAF planes at Kai Tak airport; two men of the Royal Canadian Signals are wounded, the first Canadian casualties, in the camp at Sham Shui Po, as the Japanese 38th Division moves across the frontier of the New Territories.
1917
Halifax Nova Scotia - First relief train reaches Halifax from New England; with doctors, nurses, and supplies to treat survivors of the Halifax explosion.
1913
Victoria BC - BC government prohibits landing of skilled or unskilled labourers at BC ports; because of unemployment and labour strife in province.
1891
Ottawa Ontario - Ottawa imposes duty on fish imported from Newfoundland.
1882
Battleford Saskatchewan - Cree/Saulteaux leader Mistahimaskwa (Big Bear) 1825-1888 finally signs Treaty #6 six years after the rest of his tribe; ineligible for government rations, and the buffalo gone, his 114 remaining followers were starving and living in cloth and stick tents; later tries to create an Indian territory in the North West through adjacent reserves.
1880
Edmonton Alberta - First edition of The Edmonton Bullet, Alberta's first newspaper.
1879
Kamloops BC - McLean Gang go on a rampage, killing John Ussher, a Kamloops policeman arresting them for horse theft, and James Kelly, a sheep herder; later trapped in a cabin near Douglas Lake, Allan, Charlie and Archie McLean and Alex Hare are brought to trial and executed in a group hanging on Jan. 31, 1881.
1874
Montreal Quebec - Westmount incorporated.
1863
Ottawa Ontario - Allan Line wins new transatlantic mail contract from Canadian government.
1852
Quebec Quebec - Université Laval receives a royal charter; founded by Bishop Laval in 1663 as the Seminary of Quebec; North America's oldest French University today situated in Ste-Foy, a Quebec suburb..
1838
Kingston Ontario - Nils von Schoultz executed at Fort Henry, along with fellow republican rebels Dorrephus Abbey, Daniel George, Martin Woodruff, Joel Peeler and Sylvanus Swift.
1837
Toronto Ontario - William Lyon Mackenzie, chief organizer of the rebellion in Upper Canada, flees toward Niagara after the militia defeat his rebels at Montgomery's Tavern.
1837
Brantford Ontario - Charles Duncombe gathers rebels at Scotland, in Oakland Township, southwest of Brantford; rising disperses Dec. 13.
1649
Christian Island, Ontario - Jesuit missionary Noel Chabanal murdered on the way to Ile Saint-Joseph by renegade Huron Indian Louis Honarreennha, who hated the black robes; one of the North American Jesuit martyrs canonized by Pope Pius XI in 1930.

End of C/P.

 

[henric]

December 9th 2013 - This Date in History.


Events:C/P.

480 – Odoacer, first King of Italy, occupies Dalmatia. He later establishes his political power with the co-operation of the Roman Senate.
536 – Gothic War: The Byzantine general Belisarius enters Rome unopposed; the Gothic garrison flee the capital.
730 – Battle of Marj Ardabil: The Khazars annihilate an Umayyad army and kill its commander, al-Jarrah ibn Abdallah al-Hakami.
1425 – The Catholic University of Leuven is founded.
1531 – The Virgin of Guadalupe first appears to Juan Diego at Tepeyac, Mexico City.
1775 – American Revolutionary War: British troops lose the Battle of Great Bridge, and leave Virginia soon afterward.
1793 – New York City's first daily newspaper, the American Minerva, is established by Noah Webster.
1824 РPatriot forces led by General Antonio Jos̩ de Sucre defeat a Royalist army in the Battle of Ayacucho, putting an end to the Peruvian War of Independence.
1835 – Texas Revolution: The Texian Army captures San Antonio, Texas.
1851 – The first YMCA in North America is established in Montreal, Quebec.
1856 – The Iranian city of Bushehr surrenders to occupying British forces.
1861 – American Civil War: The Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War is established by the U.S. Congress.
1872 – In Louisiana, P. B. S. Pinchback becomes the first serving African-American governor of a U.S. state.
1875 – The Massachusetts Rifle Association, "America's Oldest Active Gun Club", is founded.
1888 – Statistician Herman Hollerith installs his computing device at the United States War Department.
1897 – Activist Marguerite Durand founds the feminist daily newspaper, La Fronde, in Paris.
1905 – In France, the law separating church and state is passed.
1911 – A mine explosion near Briceville, Tennessee, kills 84 miners despite rescue efforts led by the United States Bureau of Mines.
1917 – World War I: In Palestine, Field Marshal Edmund Allenby captures Jerusalem.
1922 – Gabriel Narutowicz is elected the first president of Poland.
1931 – The Constituent Cortes approves a constitution which establishes the Second Spanish Republic.
1935 – Walter Liggett, American newspaper editor and muckraker, is killed in a gangland murder.
1937 – Second Sino-Japanese War: Battle of Nanking – Japanese troops under the command of Lt. Gen. Asaka Yasuhiko launch an assault on the Chinese city of Nanjing (Nanking).
1940 – World War II: Operation Compass – British and Indian troops under the command of Major-General Richard O'Connor attack Italian forces near Sidi Barrani in Egypt.
1941 – World War II: The Republic of China, Cuba, Guatemala, and the Philippine Commonwealth, declare war on Germany and Japan.
1941 – World War II: The American 19th Bombardment Group attacks Japanese ships off the coast of Vigan, Luzon.
1946 – The "Subsequent Nuremberg Trials" begin with the "Doctors' Trial", prosecuting physicians and officers alleged to be involved in Nazi human experimentation and mass murder under the guise of euthanasia.
1946 – The Constituent Assembly of India meets for the first time to write the Constitution of India.
1950 – Cold War: Harry Gold is sentenced to 30 years in jail for helping Klaus Fuchs pass information about the Manhattan Project to the Soviet Union. His testimony is later instrumental in the prosecution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.
1953 – Red Scare: General Electric announces that all communist employees will be discharged from the company.
1956 – Trans-Canada Air Lines Flight 810, a Canadair North Star, crashes near Hope, British Columbia, Canada, killing all 62 people on board.
1958 – The John Birch Society is founded in the United States.
1960 – The first episode of Coronation Street, the world's longest-running television soap opera, is broadcast in the United Kingdom.
1961 – Tanganyika becomes independent from Britain.
1962 – The Petrified Forest National Park is established in Arizona.
1965 – Kecksburg UFO incident: A fireball is seen from Michigan to Pennsylvania; witnesses report something crashing in the woods near Pittsburgh. In 2005 NASA admits that it examined the object.
1966 – Barbados joins the United Nations.
1968 – Douglas Engelbart gave what became known as "The Mother of All Demos", publicly debuting the computer mouse, hypertext, and the bit-mapped graphical user interface using the oN-Line System (NLS).
1969 – U.S. Secretary of State William P. Rogers proposes his plan for a ceasefire in the War of Attrition; Egypt and Jordan accept it over the objections of the PLO, which leads to civil war in Jordan in September 1970.
1971 – The United Arab Emirates join the United Nations.
1971 – Indo-Pakistani War: The Indian Air Force executes an airdrop of Indian Army units, bypassing Pakistani defences.
1973 – British and Irish authorities sign the Sunningdale Agreement in an attempt to establish a power-sharing Northern Ireland Executive and a cross-border Council of Ireland.
1979 – The eradication of the smallpox virus is certified, making smallpox the first and to date only human disease driven to extinction.
1987 – Israeli-Palestinian conflict: The First Intifada begins in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.
1988 – The Michael Hughes Bridge in Sligo, Ireland, is officially opened.
2003 – A blast in the center of Moscow kills six people and wounds several more.
2008 – The Governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich, is arrested by federal officials for crimes including attempting to sell the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by President-elect Barack Obama's election to the Presidency.



Today's Canadian Headline...


1851 MONTREAL GETS NORTH AMERICA'S FIRST YMCA
Montreal Quebec - George Williams opens Young Men's Christian Association [YMCA] branch; first in North America.

1968

Ottawa Ontario - André Laurendeau and Davidson Dunton issue their second Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism Report; recommends more English Canadian children take French language courses. Here's a portrait of Laurendeau, editor of Le Devoir.


In Other Events...


1990 Ottawa Ontario - Pope John Paul canonizes Marie-Marguérite d'Youville, founder, in 1755, of the Sisters of Charity of the Hôpital Général (Soeurs grises or Grey Nuns); born Marie-Marguérite Dufrost de La Jemmerais at Varennes, Quebec, Oct. 15, 1701; educated by the Ursulines of Quebec; died in Montreal Dec. 23, 1771.
1979 Ottawa Ontario - Finance Minister John Crosbie introduces 'tough' budget ('no pain, no gain'); leads to Clark ministry's defeat in the House.
1977 Montreal Quebec - Canadair Ltd. wins $100 million contract to build components for Lockheed Aurora and P-3C planes.
1977 Labrador - Executive jet crashes in Labrador, killing eight people, including four executives of Churchill Falls Corp.
1973 Toronto Ontario - The Royal Canadian Air Farce first airs on CBC Radio.
1973 Montreal Quebec - Official opening of Place Radio-Canada.
1972 NWT - Martin Hartwell found alive 32 days after his bush plane crashed in the Arctic; 3 passengers died in crash.
1971 Montreal Quebec - Montreal subway trains collide, killing one passenger and destroying 36 Metro cars.
1963 Hamilton Ontario - Studebaker Corp. announces plan to move car plant from South Bend, Indiana to Hamilton.
1957 Oslo Norway - Canada's Lester B. Pearson accepts the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo; awarded for his work in setting up the UN peacekeeping force used in Suez.
1956 BC - Trans Canada Air Lines plane crashes on Mt. Selesse, BC, killing 62 people.
1955 Montreal Quebec - Mob of almost 3,000 demonstrates against higher transit fares; rioting causes $100,000 in damage to city buses and streetcars.
1953 Montreal Quebec - Montreal Canadiens (with 106) and Toronto Maple Leafs (with 98) amass 204 penalty minutes in an NHL game.
1950 Ottawa Ontario - Canada suspends export permits for Korea, China, Hong Kong, and Macao.
1947 Lethbridge Alberta - Lethbridge woman and her 13 year old daughter return home after being trapped in Bulgaria with relatives since 1938; unable to leave when war erupted in 1939; Communist government refused to let her leave in 1945.
1944 Montreal Quebec - Victor Barbeau and others found the Académie canadienne-française; changed its name to the Académie québécoise in 1992.
1944 Fort McMurray, Alberta - Abasand Oils Ltd. refinery completed; starts operating on Dec. 16; Bituminous Sands Permit No. 1 originally granted to Max Ball and associates' Canadian Northern Oil Company in 1930.
1943 Moro River Italy - Canadian troops cross Moro River; push through San ******** towards Ortona; open bloody new campaign.
1941 Whitby Ontario - British Special Operations Executive (SOE) opens Camp X (STS - Special Training School - 103) as a special school for spies and special operatives, mostly Canadians or Americans; SOE also operates Hydra station, to handle top-secret British transatlantic radio intelligence; closes in 1943; James Bond author Ian Fleming one of the graduates.
1941 Hong Kong - Japanese ground forces attack across the frontier of the New Territories; capture the key position of Shing Mun Redoubt; D Company of The Winnipeg Grenadiers dispatched to the mainland to strengthen this sector.
1941 Victoria BC - John Hart sworn in as BC Premier, replacing Thomas Dufferin Patullo, in power since Nov. 15, 1933.
1941 BC - Fear of Japanese invasion spreads on west coast; government orders blackouts; closes Japanese-Canadian newspapers, schools.
1939 Winnipeg Manitoba - Arthur Meighen officially resigns as leader of the Conservative Party at a convention; replaced on Dec. 11 by John Bracken.
1939 Toronto Ontario - Winnipeg Blue Bombers beat Ottawa Rough Riders, 8-7, to win the 27th Grey Cup game.
1939 Quebec Quebec - Quebec adopts a new coat of arms and the motto, 'Je me souviens' [I Remember].
1936 Ottawa Ontario - Canada told that King Edward VIII 1894-1972 intends to abdicate; he is assisted by his financial advisor, Torontonian Sir Edward Peacock.
1933 Toronto Ontario - Toronto Argonauts beat Sarnia Imperials, 4-3, to win the 21st Grey Cup game.
1926 Ottawa Ontario - First session of 16th Parliament meets until April 17, 1927; will establish the Department of National Revenue; system of old age pensions.
1916 Revelstoke BC - Canadian Pacific inaugurates the 8 km long Connaught Tunnel through Macdonald Mountain in the Selkirk Range, eliminating the old climb over Rogers Pass and 8 km of snowsheds that protected the main CPR line from frequent avalanches caused by up to 15 metres of snow each winter; Canada's longest rail tunnel took two years to blast, and cost $2 million.
1908 Toronto Ontario - Standard Stock and Mining Exchange sets up a clearing house; later absorbed by TSE.
1880 Ottawa Ontario - Opening of the 3rd Session of the 4th Parliament of Canada.
1878 Winnipeg Manitoba - First St. Paul, Minneapolis and Manitoba railway train arrives at Winnipeg late this evening after 30 hour trip from St. Paul, Minnesota; end of Kitson's Red River Transportation Company stern wheelers.
1862 Montreal Quebec - Numismatic Society of Montreal founded; Canada's first coin club; Adélard Boucher named first president.
1858 Toronto Ontario - Robert Baldwin dies; attained responsible government with Louis LaFontaine in their Great Ministry of 1848-1851.
1843 Lennoxville Quebec - George Mountain 1789-1863 founds Bishop's University at Lennoxville, as a liberal arts college; Anglican Bishop of Montreal.
1757 Quebec Quebec - Famine in New France due to a poor harvest causes the inhabitants to butcher their horses.
1755 Halifax, Nova Scotia - First post office in Canada opens, along with subsidized direct mail communication with Great Britain by ship; origin of Cunard Line.
1657 Trois-Rivières, Quebec - The Jesuit Relations reports that on this day in Three Rivers, 'M. de la Poterie opened an establishment where wine was sold to the Natives: two pots for a winter beaver and one pot for a summer beaver. And since the troubles were not resolved by these means, people complained about the existence of the establishment, to the extent that M. de La Poterie was forced to send to Quebec for the will of the Governor regarding said establishment. The Governor concluded that it should not remain opened, but he did not force him to close it down.

End of C/P.

 

[henric]

December 10th 2013 - This Date in History.


Events:C/P.

1041 – The adopted son of Empress Zoe of Byzantium succeeds to the throne of the Eastern Roman Empire as Michael V.
1508 – The League of Cambrai is formed by Pope Julius II, Louis XII of France, Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor and Ferdinand II of Aragon as an alliance against Venice.
1510 – Portuguese Conquest of Goa: Portuguese naval forces under the command of Afonso de Albuquerque and local mercenaries working for privateer Timoji seize Goa from the Bijapur Sultanate, resulting in 451 years of Portuguese colonial rule.
1520 – Martin Luther burns his copy of the papal bull Exsurge Domine outside Wittenberg's Elster Gate.
1541 – Thomas Culpeper and Francis Dereham are executed for having affairs with Catherine Howard, Queen of England and wife of Henry VIII.
1665 – The Royal Netherlands Marine Corps is founded by Michiel de Ruyter
1684 – Isaac Newton's derivation of Kepler's laws from his theory of gravity, contained in the paper De motu corporum in gyrum, is read to the Royal Society by Edmund Halley.
1799 – France adopts the metre as its official unit of length.
1817 – Mississippi becomes the 20th U.S. state.
1861 – American Civil War: the Confederate States of America accept a rival state government's pronouncement that declares Kentucky to be the 13th state of the Confederacy.
1861 – Forces led by Nguyen Trung Truc, an anti-colonial guerrilla leader in southern Vietnam, sink the French lorcha L'Esperance.
1864 – American Civil War: Sherman's March to the Sea – Major General William Tecumseh Sherman's Union Army troops reach the outer Confederate defenses of Savannah, Georgia.
1868 – The first traffic lights are installed, outside the Palace of Westminster in London. Resembling railway signals, they use semaphore arms and are illuminated at night by red and green gas lamps.
1884 – Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is published for the first time.
1898 – Spanish-American War: The Treaty of Paris is signed, officially ending the conflict.
1899 – Delta Sigma Phi fraternity is founded at the City College of New York.
1901 – The first Nobel Prizes are awarded.
1902 – Women are given the right to vote in Tasmania.
1906 – U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt wins the Nobel Peace Prize, becoming the first American to win a Nobel Prize.
1907 – The worst night of the Brown Dog riots in London, when 1,000 medical students clash with 400 police officers over the existence of a memorial for animals that have been vivisected.
1909 РSelma Lagerl̦f becomes the first female writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature
1911 – The first transcontinental flight across the United States is completed. Calbraith Perry Rodgers began the flight on 17 September 1911, taking off from Sheepshead Bay NY.
1927 – The phrase "Grand Ole Opry" is used for the first time on-air.
1932 – Thailand adopts a constitution and becomes a constitutional monarchy.
1935 – The Downtown Athletic Club Trophy, later renamed the Heisman Trophy, is awarded to halfback Jay Berwanger of the University of Chicago.
1936 – Abdication Crisis: Edward VIII signs the Instrument of Abdication.
1941 – World War II: The Royal Navy capital ships HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse are sunk by Imperial Japanese Navy torpedo bombers near Malaya.
1941 – World War II: Battle of the Philippines – Imperial Japanese forces under the command of General Masaharu Homma land on the Philippine mainland.
1948 – The United Nations General Assembly adopts the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
1949 – Chinese Civil War: The People's Liberation Army begins its siege of Chengdu, the last Kuomintang-held city in mainland China, forcing President of the Republic of China Chiang Kai-shek and his government to retreat to Taiwan.
1955 – The Mighty Mouse Playhouse premieres on television.
1965 – The Grateful Dead's first concert performance under this new name.
1968 – Japan's biggest heist, the still-unsolved "300 million yen robbery", is carried out in Tokyo.
1976 – The United Nations General Assembly adopts the Convention on the Prohibition of Military or Any Other Hostile Use of Environmental Modification Techniques.
1978 – Arab-Israeli conflict: Prime Minister of Israel Menachem Begin and President of Egypt Anwar Sadat are jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
1979 – Kaohsiung Incident: Taiwanese pro-democracy demonstrations are suppressed by the KMT dictatorship, and organizers are arrested.
1983 – Democracy is restored in Argentina with the assumption of President Raúl Alfonsín.
1989 – Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj announces the establishment of Mongolia's democratic movement that changes the second oldest communist country into a democracy.
1993 – The last shift leaves Wearmouth Colliery in Sunderland. The closure of the 156-year-old pit marks the end of the old County Durham coalfield, which had been in operation since the Middle Ages.
1994 – Rwandan Genocide: Military advisor to the United Nations Secretary-General and head of the Military Division of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations of the United Nations Maurice Baril recommends that the UN multi-national forces in Zaire stand down.


Today's Canadian Headline...


1813 YANKEES TORCH TOWN OF NIAGARA
Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario - US Army Major McClure evacuates Fort George, crosses the Niagara River with American troops, but flees the next day at British approach, burning 149 houses, leaving 400 citizens of Newark (Niagara) homeless.

1985
Ottawa Ontario -
Steve MacLean named Canada's second astronaut;
Ottawa native.


In Other Events...

1995 Calgary Alberta - Alberta Energy Co, Ltd. acquires Conwest Exploration Co. Ltd. in $1-billion deal that creates one of Canada's largest oil and gas producers.
1992 Halifax, Nova Scotia - Westray Mine disaster prosecution drops 34 of 52 safety charges to avoid prejudicing RCMP criminal investigation.
1991 Ottawa Ontario - Defense Department says Gulf War cost Canada $690 million; below $1 billion anticipated.
1990 Beauséjour New Brunswick - Jean Chrétien 1934- wins federal by-election in Beauséjour; unopposed by Tories; gets a Commons seat for the first time since 1986; in a riding vacated by Fernand Robichaud.
1987 Montreal Quebec - First death from eating tainted mussels in Montreal.
1986 Stockholm Sweden - John Polanyi receives Nobel Prize in Physics from the King of Sweden.
1985 Ottawa Ontario - Supreme Court of Canada upholds firing of public servant Neil Fraser for criticizing the government's metric conversion policies.
1984 Montreal Quebec - Expos trade Gary Carter to the New York Mets.
1984 New York City - Brian Mulroney 1939- tells New York financiers, 'Canada is open for business again'; referring to end of Foreign Investment review Agency.
1982 Montego Bay, JamaicaCanada signs United Nations Law of the Sea Convention, along with 118 other UN countries; Canada's 200 mile (325 km) offshore economic zone recognized; Britain and the United States do not sign, arguing that the treaty had not addressed their concerns about national seabed mining; in 1994 they sign an amendment to Part XI, setting up the International Seabed Authority (ISA), to administer the seabed mining regime set forth in the Convention/Agreement.
1976 Quebec - Henry Morgentaler 1923- Quebec drops all charges against him, ending controversial legal case.
1968 Montreal Quebec - Charles Lavern Beasley jailed for six years for hijacking Toronto-bound flight from Moncton to Cuba.
1963 Inuvik NWT - Opening of Canada's first permanent research laboratory north of Arctic Circle at Inuvik.
1954 Canso Nova Scotia - Opening of 1,280 metre Canso Causeway; links Cape Breton Island to Nova Scotia mainland; the deepest causeway in the world.
1951 Korea - Company of Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry carry out raid behind Hill 277, while the Royal Canadian Regiment sends a 35 man fighting patrol against Hill 166; both patrols reach their objectives and bring back useful information on enemy defences.
1949 Ottawa Ontario - Royal Assent given to Supreme Court Act amendment, giving final authority in judicial matters to the Supreme Court of Canada; end of appeals to the British Privy Council.
1948 United Nations, New York - United Nations General Assembly adopts Universal Declaration of Human Rights; Canada a signatory; proclaims a 'common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms'.
1946 Ottawa Ontario - Douglas C. Abbott replaces Ilsley as Minister of Finance; until June 30, 1954; replaced by Walter Harris.
1944 Lamone River Italy - Canadian Army troops storm the Lamone River defences in Italy.
1942 Ottawa Ontario - Government cuts output of spirits by 30%, wine 20% and beer 10% under wartime powers; some opposition, to the cry of 'No Beer, No Bonds'.
1941 Ottawa Ontario - Louis Stephen St. Laurent 1882-1973 sworn in as Minister of Justice, succeeding Ernest Lapointe.
1938 Toronto Ontario - Toronto Argonauts beat Winnipeg Blue Bombers, 30-7, to win 26th Grey Cup game.
1928 Calgary Alberta - Western Airways Fokker leaves Calgary's civic airport for Regina, Saskatchewan this morning, with 10 bags of letters and Christmas packages; Canada's first use of airplanes for daily mail delivery; test of proposed national airmail service.
1918 Ottawa Ontario - Government authorizes issue of $50 million of $5 War Savings Stamps.
1917 Belleville Ontario - Mackenzie Bowell 1823-1917 dies at age 93; Canada's 5th Prime Minister (1894-96) born at Rickinghall, England Dec. 27, 1823; editor and owner of the Belleville Intelligencer newspaper and Orange Order stalwart; 1867-1892 Conservative MP North Hastings; 1892-1906 led the Opposition in the Senate.
1914 Montreal Quebec - Mobilization of the Montreal Machine Gun Corps, for service in World War I.
1913 Montreal Quebec - Canadian Northern Railroad finishes building tunnel under Mount Royal.
1904 Montreal Quebec - Earl Grey sworn in as Governor General at Rideau Hall.
1903 Calgary Alberta - Convicted murderer Ernest Cashel escapes from jail; robbed and killed a rancher, and was to hang on Dec. 15; captured in Shaganappi, a camp on the western outskirts of Calgary on Jan. 24, 1904, after 2 month long manhunt; hanged Feb. 02, 1904.
1900 Montreal Quebec - Archbishop Bégin intervenes to end Quebec Shoe Workers' lockout, since Oct. 27; first direct intervention in a labour conflict by QuŽbec Catholic clergy and first step toward the creation of Catholic unions.
1869 Ottawa Ontario - Donald Smith, later Lord Strathcona 1820-1914 appointed Special Commissioner to secure peaceful transfer of Red River to Canada.
1858 Kingston Ontario - Province of Canada issues Letters Patent, making legal tender the silver 5¢, 10¢, and 25¢ pieces, and copper cent.
1838 Beauharnois Quebec - Canadian militia chase 400 Chasseur raiders out of village of Beauharnois to end second rebellion.
1837 Montreal Quebec - British troops sent to St-Martin to guard the bridge leading to St-Eustache and St-Benoît against Patriote rebels.

End of C/P.

 

[henric]

December 11th 2013 - This Date in History.


Events:C/P.

220 – Cao Pi forces Emperor Xian of Han to abdicate the Han Dynasty throne. The Cao Wei empire is established. The Three Kingdoms period begins.
361 – Julian the Apostate enters Constantinople as sole Emperor of the Roman Empire.
630 – Muhammad leads an army of 10,000 to conquer Mecca.
969 – Byzantine Emperor Nikephoros II Phokas is assassinated by his wife Theophano and her lover, the later Emperor John I Tzimiskes.
1282 – Llywelyn the Last, the last native Prince of Wales, is killed at Cilmeri, near Builth Wells, south Wales.
1602 – A surprise attack by forces under the command of Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy and his brother-in-law, Philip III of Spain, is repelled by the citizens of Geneva.
1688 – James II of England abdicated the throne by throwing the Great Seal of the Realm into the River Thames.
1789 – The University of North Carolina is chartered by the North Carolina General Assembly.
1792 – French Revolution: King Louis XVI of France is put on trial for treason by the National Convention.
1815 – The U.S. Senate creates a select committee on finance and a uniform national currency, predecessor of the United States Senate Committee on Finance.
1816 – Indiana becomes the 19th U.S. state.
1868 – Brazilians defeat Paraguayans at the Battle of Avay during the Paraguayan War.
1905 – A workers' uprising occurs in Kiev, Ukraine (then part of the Russian Empire) and establishes the Shuliavka Republic.
1907 – The New Zealand Parliament Buildings are almost completely destroyed by fire.
1917 – British General Edmund Allenby enters Jerusalem on foot and declares martial law.
1920 – Irish War of Independence: In retaliation for an IRA ambush, British forces burn and loot numerous buildings in Cork city. Many civilians also reported being beaten, shot at, robbed and verbally abused by British forces.
1925 – Roman Catholic papal encyclical Quas Primas introduces the Feast of Christ the King.
1927 – Guangzhou Uprising: Communist militia and worker Red Guards launch an uprising in the Chinese city of Guangzhou, taking over most of the city and announcing the formation of a Guangzhou Soviet.
1931 – The British Parliament enacts the Statute of Westminster 1931, establishing legislative equality between the United Kingdom and the self-governing dominions of the British Commonwealth: Australia, Canada, Newfoundland, New Zealand, South Africa, and the Irish Free State.
1934 – Bill Wilson, co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, takes his last drink and enters treatment for the last time.
1936 – Abdication Crisis: Edward VIII's abdication as King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions beyond the Seas, and Emperor of India, becomes effective.
1937 – Second Italo–Ethiopian War: Italy leaves the League of Nations.
1941 – World War II: Germany and Italy declare war on the United States, following the Americans' declaration of war on the Empire of Japan in the wake of the attack on Pearl Harbor. The United States, in turn, declares war on them.
1941 - World War II: Poland declares war on Empire of Japan.
1946 – The United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) is established.
1948 – The United Nations passes General Assembly Resolution 194, which established and defined the role of the United Nations Conciliation Commission as an organization to facilitate peace in the British Mandate for Palestine.
1958 – French Upper Volta and French Dahomey gain self-government from France, becoming the Republic of Upper Volta and the Republic of Dahomey (now Benin) respectively, joining the French Community.
1960 – French forces crack down in a violent clash with protesters in French Algeria during a visit by French president Charles de Gaulle.
1962 – Arthur Lucas, convicted of murder, is the last person to be executed in Canada.
1964 – Che Guevara speaks at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, New York.
1968 – The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus featuring The Rolling Stones, Jethro Tull (band), The Who, Taj Mahal (musician), Marianne Faithfull, The Dirty Mac, Yoko Ono, Sir Robert Fossett's Circus and the Nurses is filmed at the Intertel (V.T.R. Services) Studio, Wycombe Road, Wembley
1972 – Apollo 17 becomes the sixth and last Apollo mission to land on the Moon.
1980 – The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, also known as CERCLA or Superfund, is enacted by the U.S. Congress.
1981 – El Mozote massacre: Armed forces in El Salvador kill an estimated 900 civilians in an anti-guerrilla campaign during the Salvadoran Civil War.
1993 – Forty-eight people are killed when a block of the Highland Towers collapses near Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
1994 – First Chechen War: Russian President Boris Yeltsin orders Russian troops into Chechnya.
1994 – A bomb explodes on Philippine Airlines Flight 434, en route from Manila, Philippines to Tokyo, Japan, killing one. The captain is able to safely land the plane.
1997 – The Kyoto Protocol opens for signature.
1998 – Thai Airways Flight 261 crashes near Surat Thani Airport, killing 101. The pilot flying the Thai Airways Airbus A310-300 is thought to have suffered spatial disorientation.
2001 – The People's Republic of China joins the World Trade Organization.
2005 – The Buncefield Oil Depot catches fire in Hemel Hempstead, England, United Kingdom.
2005 – Cronulla riots: Thousands of White Australians demonstrate against ethnic violence resulting in a riot against anyone thought to be Lebanese (and many who are not) in Cronulla, New South Wales, Australia. These are followed up by retaliatory ethnic attacks on Cronulla.
2006 – The International Conference to Review the Global Vision of the Holocaust is opened in Tehran, Iran by then-president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad; nations such as Israel and the United States express concern.
2006 – Felipe Calderón, the President of Mexico, launches a military-led offensive to put down the drug cartel violence in the state of Michoacán. This effort is often regarded as the first event in the Mexican Drug War.
2007 – Two car bombs explode at the Constitutional court building in Algiers, Algeria and the United Nations office. An estimated 45 people are killed in the bombings.
2008 – Bernard Madoff is arrested and charged with securities fraud in a $50 billion Ponzi scheme.



Today's Canadian Headline...


1931 CANADA NOW FULLY INDEPENDENT
London England - British Parliament passes Statute of Westminster; gives complete legislative equality to Dominion Parliaments; marks the final independence of Canada from Britain; BNA Act becomes Canadian, but no amending formula for constitutional change.

1948
St. John's Newfoundland - Joey Smallwood 1900-1992 signs Confederation agreement for Newfoundland to enter Confederation as Canada's 10th province.


In Other Events...


1996 Ottawa Ontario - CBC/SRC President Perrin Beatty announces new cuts of $5.5 million and 378 employees.
1995 Ottawa Ontario - House of Commons passes resolution recognizing that Quebec is a distinct society within Canada.
1995 NWT - Innu First Nations choose Iqaluit as capital of the Nunavut Territory to come into effect April 1, 1999; Inuit plebiscite.
1992 Vancouver BC - Woodward's files for court protection from creditors who are owed over $65 million; company consists of 26 department stores, 33 Woodwyn discount outlets, 20 travel agencies, four Abercrombie & Fitch specialty stores and three Commercial Interiors divisions in BC and Alberta; assets will be acquired in 1993 by the Hudson's Bay Company which converts old Woodward's stores into new Bay or Zeller's outlets. Store established by Charles Woodward in 1892 selling dry goods, men's clothing and footwear; moved from Main and Hastings Street over to Hastings and Abbott in 1903.
1992 Philadelphia Pennsylvania - US lawyer Gary Bettmann becomes first Commissioner of the National Hockey League.
1991 St. John's, Newfoundland - Miller Ayre announces closing of 60 store Ayres chain; blames GST; company 142 years old.
1990 Ottawa Ontario - Environment Minister Robert de Cotret unveils $3 billion Green Plan; over 100 measures to protect land, water, soil, forests and wildlife; also Arctic strategy, programs to combat pollution.
1985 Edmonton Alberta - Edmonton Oilers beat Chicago Black Hawks 12-9 in a record game - ties NHL record of 21 goals in a game; new NHL record of total points in a game - 62 (36 by Edmonton, 26 by Chicago).
1983 Manitoba - Gary Filmon 1945- elected leader of the Manitoba Progressive Conservative Party.
1981 Nassau Bahamas - Trevor Berbick 1953- defeats three-time world champion Muhammad Ali in Nassau in 10-round unanimous decision; Canadian and Commonwealth heavyweight boxing champion.
1975 BC - Bill Bennett 1932- son of W.A.C. Bennett, wins British Columbia election for Social Credit; defeats NDP under Dave Barrett 1930-, in power since Aug. 20, 1972.
1967 Montreal Quebec - Paul-Émile Cardinal Léger leaves Montreal for missionary work in Zaire.
1964 Los Angeles, California - Lorne Greene, Canadian star of the Bonanza TV western, has a #1 Billboard hit with 'Ringo'.
1962 Toronto Ontario - Ronald Turpin and Arthur Lucas hanged in the Don Jail; Canada's last judicial hanging.
1961 Ottawa Ontario - Assistant Military Attaché at Soviet Embassy expelled for receiving secret Canadian documents.
1944 Montreal Quebec - Camilien Houde re-elected Mayor of Montreal after release from Camp Petawawa.
1942 Winnipeg Manitoba - John Bracken 1883-1969 chosen as Progressive Conservative Party leader on second ballot, replacing Arthur Meighen; to Oct 2; wins 538 votes, to M.A. MacPherson (255), J.G. Diefenbaker (79); Conservatives change name to Progressive Conservative Party to reflect the absorption of many members of the Progressive Party.
1941 Hong Kong - D Company of the Winnipeg Grenadiers dispatched to the mainland to strengthen the Gin Drinkers' Line against the Japanese invaders; sees some action, thus becoming the first Canadian Army Unit to fight in World War II; at midday, General Maltby orders the mainland troops to withdraw to the island; the Winnipeg Grenadiers cover the Royal Scots' withdrawal down the Kowloon Peninsula.
1937 Toronto Ontario - Toronto Argonauts beat Winnipeg Blue Bombers, 30-7 in 25th Grey Cup game.
1936 London England - King George VI 1895-1952 starts reign; to 1952 on abdication of brother Edward VIII, who reigned for only 11 months, and left the throne to marry American divorcee Wallis Warfield Simpson.
1934 Toronto Ontario - Charlie Conacher unsuccessful against the New York Rangers when he takes the first Toronto Maple Leaf penalty shot.
1916 Saskatchewan - Saskatchewan votes to abolish liquor stores.
1911 Edmonton Alberta - Alberta brings in first Motor Vehicles Act; sets speed limit in towns and cities at 15 mph, and at 20 mph in less settled areas; outside urban areas, drivers required to slow down to 6 mph when approaching or passing pedestrians and horses, and to assist any horseman who required assistance; drivers required to take out a license, must be over 16 if a boy or over 18 if a young lady.
1909 Bronx New York - Hamilton Tigers beat Ottawa Rough Riders, 11-6 before 15,000 fans in a Canadian Football exhibition game in Van Cortlandt Park.
1901 Poldhu Cornwall - Italian engineer Guglielmo Marconi sends first transatlantic radio signal; received by Percy Wright Paget in St Johns, Newfoundland.
1871 Montreal Quebec - Russian Prince Alexis visits Montreal.
1860 Vancouver BC - Twelve children from the Musqueam Reserve are baptised by Oblate Father Leon Fouquet.
1837 Buffalo New York - William Lyon Mackenzie 1795-1861 flees Upper Canada for US, and reaches safety in Buffalo.
1753 Ohio - George Washington 1732-1799 arrives in the Ohio Valley with Tanaghrisson and two other chiefs to help Senecas and counter French; a young Major from Virginia.
1713 Quebec Quebec - Michel Beaudoin the first native born Quebecker to enter the Jesuit Order.

End of C/P.

 

[henric]

December 12th 2013 - This Date in History.


Events:C/P.


627 – Battle of Nineveh: A Byzantine army under Emperor Heraclius defeats Emperor Khosrau II's Persian forces, commanded by General Rhahzadh.
1098 – First Crusade: Massacre of Ma'arrat al-Numan – Crusaders breach the town's walls and massacre about 20,000 inhabitants. After finding themselves with insufficient food, they resort to cannibalism.
1388 – Maria of Enghien sells the lordship of Argos and Nauplia to the Republic of Venice.
1408 – The Order of the Dragon a monarchical chivalric order is created by Sigismund of Luxembourg, then King of Hungary.
1781 – American Revolutionary War: Second Battle of Ushant – A British fleet led by HMS Victory defeats a French fleet.
1787 – Pennsylvania becomes the second state to ratify the United States Constitution five days after Delaware became the first.
1862 – USS Cairo sinks on the Yazoo River, becoming the first armored ship to be sunk by an electrically detonated mine.
1870 – Joseph H. Rainey of South Carolina becomes the second black U.S. congressman, the first being Hiram Revels.
1897 – Belo Horizonte, the first planned city in Brazil, is founded.
1901 – Guglielmo Marconi receives the first transatlantic radio signal (the letter "S" [***] in Morse Code), at Signal Hill in St John's, Newfoundland.
1911 – Delhi replaces Calcutta as the capital of India.
1911 – King George V and Mary of Teck are enthroned as Emperor and Empress of India.
1915 – President of the Republic of China, Yuan Shikai, announces his intention to reinstate the monarchy and proclaim himself Emperor of China.
1917 – In Nebraska, Father Edward J. Flanagan founds Boys Town as a farm village for wayward boys.
1918 – The Flag of Estonia is raised atop the Pikk Hermann for the first time.
1925 – The Majlis of Iran votes to crown Reza Khan as the new Shah of Persia.
1935 – Lebensborn Project, a Nazi reproduction program, is founded by Heinrich Himmler.
1936 – Xi'an Incident: The Generalissimo of the Republic of China, Chiang Kai-shek, is kidnapped by Zhang Xueliang.
1937 – USS Panay incident: Japanese aircraft bomb and sink US gunboat USS Panay on the Yangtze River in China.
1939 – Winter War: Battle of Tolvajärvi – Finnish forces defeat those of the Soviet Union in their first major victory of the conflict.
1939 – HMS Duchess sinks after a collision with HMS Barham off the coast of Scotland with the loss of 124 men.
1940 – World War II: Approximately 70 people are killed in the Marples Hotel, Fitzalan Square, Sheffield, as a result of a German air raid.
1941 – World War II: Fifty-four Japanese A6M Zero fighters raid Batangas Field, Philippines. Jesús Villamor and four Filipino fighter pilots fend them off; César Basa is killed.
1941 – World War II: USMC F4F "Wildcats" sink the first 4 major Japanese ships off Wake Island.
1941 – World War II: The United Kingdom declares war on Bulgaria. Hungary and Romania declare war on the United States. India declares war on Japan.
1941 – Adolf Hitler announces extermination of the Jews at a meeting in the Reich Chancellery
1942 – World War II: German troops begin Operation Winter Storm, an attempt to relieve encircled Axis forces during the Battle of Stalingrad.
1942 – A fire in a hostel in St. John's, Newfoundland, kills 100 people.
1946 – A fire at a New York City ice plant spreads to a nearby tenement killing 37 people.
1948 – Malayan Emergency: Batang Kali Massacre – 14 members of the Scots Guards stationed in Malaysia allegedly massacre 24 unarmed civilians and set fire to the village.
1950 – Paula Ackerman, the first woman appointed to perform rabbinical functions in the United States, leads the congregation in her first services.
1956 – Beginning of the Irish Republican Army's "Border Campaign".
1958 – Guinea joins the United Nations.
1963 – Kenya gains its independence from the United Kingdom.
1964 – Prime Minister Jomo Kenyatta becomes the first President of the Republic of Kenya.
1969 – Strategy of tension: Piazza Fontana bombing – The offices of Banca Nazionale dell'Agricoltura in Piazza Fontana, Milan, are bombed.
1979 – Coup d'état of December Twelfth: South Korean Army Major General Chun Doo-hwan orders the arrest of Army Chief of Staff General Jeong Seung-hwa without authorization from President Choi Kyu-ha, alleging involvement in the assassination of ex-President Park Chung Hee.
1979 – President of Pakistan, Zia-ul-Haq, confers Nishan-e-Imtiaz on Nobel laureate Dr Abdus Salam.
1979 – The unrecognised state of Zimbabwe Rhodesia returns to British control and resumes using the name Southern Rhodesia.
1983 – the Australian Labor government led by Prime Minister Bob Hawke and Treasurer Paul Keating floats the Australian dollar.
1984 – Maaouiya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya becomes the third president of Mauritania after a coup d'état against Mohamed Khouna Ould Haidalla while the latter is attending a summit.
1985 – Arrow Air Flight 1285 crashes after takeoff in Gander, Newfoundland, killing 256, including 236 members of the United States Army's 101st Airborne Division.
1988 – The Clapham Junction rail crash kills thirty-five and injures hundreds after two collisions of three commuter trains – one of the worst train crashes in the United Kingdom.
1991 – The Russian Federation gains independence from the USSR.
2000 – The United States Supreme Court releases its decision in Bush v. Gore.
2012 – North Korea successfully launches its first satellite, Kwangmyŏngsŏng-3 Unit 2, using a Unha-3 carrier rocket.



Today's Canadian Headline...


1894 DEATH OF A PRIME MINISTER
Windsor England - Sir John Thompson 1845-1894 dies at Windsor Castle of a heart attack a few minutes after being sworn in by Queen Victoria as a member of the Privy Council; his body is brought home by a British warship. Canada's 4th Prime Minister, since Dec. 5, 1892, he was a former Premier of Nova Scotia, brought to Ottawa by John A. Macdonald to serve as Justice Minister - 'The great discovery of my life,' said John A., 'was my discovery of Thompson.' Thompson was replaced by Mackenzie Bowell.

1901
St. John's, Newfoundland - Guglielmo Marconi 1874-1937 sends and receives first transatlantic radio message on Signal Hill 3,200 km away across Atlantic from Poldhu, Cornwall; from a box kite trailing a 121 metre long copper wire antenna. The first transatlantic wireless test signal is heard as the faint clicking of Morse code - of the letter 'S' repeated over and over. Here he is in his Cabot Tower laboratory on Signal Hill. Four days later, Marconi will be officially notified by the Anglo-American Telegraph Company that it will take legal action against him unless he immediately ceases his wireless experiments and removes his equipment from Newfoundland; Anglo-American has a fifty-year monopoly on electrical communications in Newfoundland starting in 1858, and is determined to hinder radio telegraphy, which it knows is a serious threat to its transatlantic electric telegraph business operated by submarine cables; Marconi soon decides to move his base of operations to Cape Breton.


In Other Events...

1996 Quebec Quebec - Jean Chrétien names Lise Thibault as Lieutenant Governor of Quebec; first woman and first handicapped person to hold the post; sworn in Jan. 30, 1997.
1996 Montreal Quebec - Moises Alou leaves the Expos to play for the Florida Marlins, then the Houston Astros.
1993 Montreal Quebec - Genie awards held in Montreal for the first time.
1992 Montreal Quebec - Quebec Premier Jacques Parizeau marries Lisette Lapointe.
1991 Ottawa Ontario - Justice Minister Kim Campbell brings in new rape shield law that defines consent, allows case questioning only when crucial to defendant; restores protection lost by ruling previous August.
1989 Revelstoke BC - CP Rail runs first regular freight train through 14.5 km Mount MacDonald Tunnel, the longest rail tunnel in the Americas.
1988 Toronto Ontario - The Canadian Football League extends its agreement with CFN through to 1990; CFL game rosters to consist of 20 non-imports, 14 imports and 2 quarterbacks; Roy McMurtry was appointed Chairman-Chief Executive Officer and Bill Baker President-Chief Operating Officer; sale of the Toronto Argonauts from Carling O'Keefe to Harry Ornest approved.
1986 Ottawa Ontario - Former Montreal Mayor Jean Drapeau named Canadian delegate to UNESCO in Paris.
1985 Quebec Quebec - Robert Bourassa 1933-1996 sworn in as 29th Premier of Quebec; formerly 26th Premier May 12, 1970 - Nov. 25, 1976; Liberal MLA for Bertrand; author of: Deux fois la Baie-James (1981), L'énergie du Nord: la force du Québec (1985) and Le défi technologique (1985); Claude Ryan his Minister of Education, Gérard-D. Lévesque Minister of Finance.
1985 Gander Newfoundland - US jet transport crashes on takeoff, killing 248 American soldiers on leave; possibly due to bomb planted by terrorists.
1984 Toronto Ontario - Ontario government ends Happy Hours in Ontario bars by banning mixed pricing and cut rate drinks.
1981 Edmonton Alberta - Oiler Wayne Gretzky notches another NHL record, reaching his 50 goal mark in only 39 games.
1980 Quebec Quebec - Jean Lesage 1912-1980 dies, politician, lawyer, born at Montreal June 10, 1912; 1945 first elected as a federal MP for Montmagny-L'Islet; re-elected 1949, 1953, 1957 and 1958; 1953 St. Laurent's Minister of Resources and Development and then of Northern Affairs and National Resources; May 31, 1958 elected leader of the Quebec Liberal Party; 1960-66 Premier of Quebec, political architect of Quebec's Quiet Revolution; elected in 1962 with a mandate to nationalize the electricity companies, under the slogan of 'Maîtres chez nous'.
1975 Toronto Ontario - Toronto Transit Commission bus collides with commuter train at level crossing, killing 9, injuring 20; worst accident in TTC history.
1970 Prince George, BC - Roy Spencer, father of Toronto Maple Leaf rookie Brian 'Spinner' Spencer shot and killed by the RCMP outside a Prince George TV station after he had forced it off the air at gunpoint because it was not carrying a game between the Leafs and the Chicago Blackhawks and a interview with his son; Brian Spencer was himself shot and killed in June 1988 in Florida.
1973 Ottawa Ontario - Royal Mint starts sale of commemorative coins to help finance 1976 Montreal Olympics.
1969 Halifax Nova Scotia - Royal Canadian Navy retires aircraft carrier HMCS Bonaventure after 12 years of service; later sold for scrap.
1968 Alberta - Harry Edwin Strom 1914- takes office as Social Credit Premier of Alberta, succeeding Ernest C. Manning.
1967 Ottawa Ontario - Ottawa joins consortium of Canadian companies exploring for oil and minerals in the Arctic.
1959 Los Angeles, California - Harry Warner dies at age 76; film executive, one of the Warner Brothers, born in Canada Dec 12, 1881.
1953 Hamilton Ontario - Governor-General Vincent Massey opens The Art Gallery of Hamilton.
1951 Ottawa Ontario - Parliament votes to set up the St. Lawrence Seaway Authority; as Canadian project manager in cooperation with US.
1951 Montreal Quebec - De Havilland DHC-3 Otter makes first test flight; larger version of the Beaver; 450 made; US Army and US Navy used Otters and the RCAF operated 69, some serving on UN duties overseas; used to pioneer water-bombing techniques.
1949 Victoria BC - Nancy Hodges 1912- elected Speaker of British Columbia Legislature; first female Speaker of a Canadian Legislature; also first woman in a Commonwealth legislative body.
1946 Montreal Quebec - Demonstration held in Montreal to protest despotism of Duplessis government.
1942 St. John's Newfoundland - Arsonist sets fire during barn dance in Knights of Columbus hostel, killing 99 people and seriously injuring another 100, mostly military personnel and their dates; reputedly set by German agent.
1938 Montreal Quebec - Camilien Houde re-elected Mayor of Montreal.
1936 Quebec Quebec - Creation of the Crédit Agricole du Québec/ Quebec Farm Credit Corporation.
1933 Boston Massachusetts - Ace Bailey collides with Bruins player Eddie Shore and ends up with a fractured skull; ends playing career after 7 seasons in the NHL; originally played for Toronto St. Pats, later the Toronto Maple Leafs, with Babe Dye and Hap Day; led NHL in both scoring and points in 1928-29; Stanley Cup team 1932-33; stayed active with Maple Leaf Gardens for decades.
1916 Midnapore Alberta - Father Albert Lacombe 1827-1916 dies in the early morning at the Lacombe Home in Midnapore; born in St. Suplice, Quebec, in 1827; after ordination served at Fort Garry; 1852 to Fort Edmonton; lived among the Cree and Blackfoot; negotiated truce between the Blackfoot and Canadian Pacific workers; 1883, Lacombe elected President of the CPR for one hour and given a lifetime rail pass; priest at St. Mary's Parish in Calgary; 1909 founded the Lacombe Home for the orphaned, aged, and indigent.
1885 Portage La Prairie, Manitoba - First CPR freight train heads east to Montreal with Manitoba wheat.
1883 Langevin Alberta - Canadian Pacific Railway crews digging for water strike natural gas at Langevin, west of present-day Medicine Hat.
1866 London England - Fire breaks out in John A. Macdonald's bedroom in the Westminster Palace Hotel during the Confederation conference; quickly extinguished.
1859 Montreal Quebec - Opening of the Victoria Bridge to rail traffic, as first passenger train crosses the iron tubular structure; formally opened by the Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII, on Aug. 25, 1860.
1858 Kingston Ontario - Province of Canada releases first decimal coins; only 421,000 cents are ready.
1843 Victoria BC - James Douglas 1803-1877 renames Fort Camosun Fort Victoria.
1843 Montreal Quebec - William Draper & Denis-Benjamin Viger form Draper-Viger Ministry with Dominick Daly, only member of previous Ministry not to resign.
1813 Astoria Oregon - William Black officially takes possession of Fort Astoria for Britain; renames it Fort George.
1813 Montreal Quebec - James McGill dies; merchant, philanthropist, born at Glasgow, Scotland Oct. 06, 1744; Montreal fur trader, land developer whose bequest of land and money led to the founding of McGill University.
1812 Toronto Ontario - Founding of the Loyal and Patriotic Society of Upper Canada to help destitute families and wounded soldiers in the War of 1812 and American invasion.
1783 Saint John New Brunswick - William Lewis & John Ryan publish first newspaper in New Brunswick, the 'Royal Saint John Gazette and Nova Scotian Intelligencer'.


End of C/P.

 

[henric]

December 13th 2013 - This Date in History.


Events:C/P.

1294 – Saint Celestine V resigns the papacy after only five months; Celestine hoped to return to his previous life as an ascetic hermit.
1545 – The Council of Trent begins.
1577 – Sir Francis Drake sets sail from Plymouth, England, on his round-the-world voyage.
1636 – The Massachusetts Bay Colony organizes three militia regiments to defend the colony against the Pequot Indians. This organization is recognized today as the founding of the National Guard of the United States.
1642 – Abel Tasman reaches New Zealand.
1643 – English Civil War: The Battle of Alton takes place in Hampshire.
1769 – Dartmouth College is founded by Reverend Eleazar Wheelock, with a royal charter from King George III, on land donated by Royal governor John Wentworth.
1809 – Dr. Ephraim McDowell performed the first ovariotomy, removing a 22 pound tumor.
1862 – American Civil War: At the Battle of Fredericksburg, Confederate General Robert E. Lee defeats the Union Major General Ambrose Burnside.
1867 – A Fenian bomb explodes in Clerkenwell, London, England, United Kingdom, killing six.
1937 – Second Sino-Japanese War: Battle of Nanking – Nanjing, defended by the National Revolutionary Army under the command of General Tang Shengzhi, falls to the Japanese.
1937 – Nanjing Massacre. Japanese troops begin carrying out several weeks worth of raping and murdering hundreds of thousands civilians and suspected Chinese resistance after the fall of Nanjing.
1938 – The Holocaust: The Neuengamme concentration camp opens in the Bergedorf district of Hamburg, Germany.
1939 – World War II: Battle of the River Plate – Captain Hans Langsdorff of the German Deutschland class cruiser (pocket battleship) Admiral Graf Spee engages with Royal Navy cruisers HMS Exeter, HMS Ajax and HMNZS Achilles.
1941 – World War II: The Kingdom of Hungary and Kingdom of Romania declare war on the United States.
1943 – World War II: The Massacre of Kalavryta by German occupying forces in Greece.
1949 – The Knesset votes to move the capital of Israel to Jerusalem.
1959 – Archbishop Makarios III becomes the first President of Cyprus.
1960 – While Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia visits Brazil, his Imperial Bodyguard seizes the capital and proclaims him deposed and his son, Crown Prince Asfa Wossen, Emperor.
1962 – NASA launches Relay 1, the first active repeater communications satellite in orbit.
1967 – Constantine II of Greece attempts an unsuccessful counter-coup against the Regime of the Colonels
1968 – Brazilian president Artur da Costa e Silva decrees the AI-5 (or the fifth Institutional Act), which lasts until 1978 and marks the beginning of the hard times of Brazilian military government.
1972 – Apollo program: Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt begin the third and final Extra-vehicular activity (EVA) or "Moonwalk" of Apollo 17. To date they are the last humans to set foot on the Moon.
1974 – Malta becomes a republic within the Commonwealth of Nations
1977 – A DC-3 aircraft chartered from the Indianapolis, Indiana-based National Jet crashes near Evansville Regional Airport, killing 29, including the University of Evansville basketball team, support staff and boosters of the team.
1979 – The Canadian Government of Prime Minister Joe Clark is defeated in the House of Commons, prompting the 1980 Canadian election.
1981 – General Wojciech Jaruzelski declares martial law in Poland to prevent dismantling of the communist system by Solidarity.
1988 – Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization Yasser Arafat gives a speech at the United Nations General Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland after the United States authorities refused to give him a visa to enter the United States.
1989 – Attack on Derryard checkpoint: The Provisional Irish Republican Army launches an attack on a British Army temporary vehicle checkpoint near Rosslea, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom. Two British soldiers are killed and one badly wounded.
2000 – The "Texas Seven" escape from the John B. Connally Unit near Kenedy, Texas and go on a robbery spree, during which police officer Aubrey Hawkins is shot and killed.
2001 – The Parliament of India Sansad is attacked by terrorists. 15 people are killed, including all the terrorists.
2002 – Enlargement of the European Union: The European Union announces that Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia will become members from May 1, 2004.
2003 – Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is captured near his home town of Tikrit (see Operation Red Dawn).
2011 РMurder-suicide in the city of Li̬ge (Belgium), killing 6 and wounding 125 people at a Christmas market.


Today's Canadian Headline...


1990 GST GOES THROUGH AFTER 6 MONTH FILIBUSTER
Ottawa Ontario - The Senate passes the 7% Goods and Services Tax 55-49; replaces old Manufacturers Tax which penalized Canadian goods.

1979

Ottawa Ontario - Joe Clark 1939- loses a 139-133 vote of non-confidence in the House, during debate on John Crosbie's 'no pain, no gain' budget, after displeasing the Créditistes whose support they needed; Clark Prime Minister of the minority government since June; calls election for Feb. 18, 1980.


In Other Events...


1995 Ottawa Ontario - Lucien Bouchard resigns his seat in the House of Commons and his Bloc québécois leadership to run for the leadership of the Parti québécois.
1995 Montreal Quebec - New Montreal Forum named the Centre Molson.
1993 Ottawa Ontario - Kim Campbell 1947- resigns as leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada, six months to the day after she won the leadership to succeed Brian Mulroney; led the Tories to an electoral disaster, reducing the Party to only two seats in the Commons; later appointed Canada's Consul General in Los Angeles; the MP for Vancouver Centre was Prime Minister June 15, 1993 to Nov. 04, 1993; will be replaced as leader by Jean Charest.
1993 Quebec Quebec - Yellow birch chosen as provincial tree of Quebec.
1992 Saint John, New Brunswick - Kenneth Colin ('K.C.') Irving 1899-1992 dies; industrialist born at Buctouche Mar. 14, 1899. Irving studied at Dalhousie and Acadia universities; served in the Royal Flying Corps in World War I; 1938 acquired Canada Veneers, which became the world's largest supplier of aircraft plywood; moved into pulp and paper, oil refining, shipping, publishing and broadcasting interests; 1971 settled in Bermuda for tax purposes.
1988 Quebec Quebec - NHL Quebec Nordiques fire head coach Guy Lapointe.
1983 Edmonton Alberta - Oiler Wayne Gretzky scores his 300th NHL goal.
1979 Ottawa Ontario - Supreme Court of Canada unanimously strikes down Quebec and Manitoba laws which created unconstitutional unilingual courts and legislatures; also declares three chapters of Bill 101 unconstitutional; Quebec responds by bringing in 311 new bilingual laws, replacing laws passed in French only.
1976 Canada - International Commission for the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries accepts Canada's 370 km (200 nautical mile) limit.
1968 Quebec Quebec - Quebec abolishes Legislative Council, changes name of Legislative Assembly to National Assembly; effective Dec. 31.
1968 Montreal Quebec - FLQ terrorists explode another bomb in Westmount.
1963 Montreal Quebec - FLQ member Mario Bachand sentenced to four years in prison for his part in May 17 bomb explosion.
1949 Quebec Quebec - Jean Béliveau joins the Quebec Citadelles junior hockey team; later Canadiens star.
1947 New York City - Rangers GM Frank Boucher says face masks for goaltenders will become standard equipment in the NHL, after one of his goalies fractures a cheekbone; detractors say dressing rooms will become salons for sissies; Canadien Jacques Plante the first pro goalie to wear a face mask in Nov. 1959.
1945 Windsor Ontario - Justice Ivan Rand of the Supreme Court of Canada gets Ford Motor Company and 17 000 United Auto Workers, on strike since Sept. 12, to agree to binding arbitration, and end their strike Dec. 20; issues the 'Rand Formula' on Jan 29, 1946, denying the UAW's demand for a union shop, and making the union liable to penalties payable from union dues in the event of an illegal strike, but provides for compulsory checkoff of union dues for all employees whether they are union members or not.
1941 Hong Kong - British Governor rejects Japanese demand for the surrender of Hong Kong; defence of the Island organized into a West Brigade, commanded by Brigadier J.K. Lawson, and including The Winnipeg Grenadiers; and an East Brigade, under Brigadier C. Wallis, including The Royal Rifles of Canada; General Maltby deploys both Canadian units to defend the southern beaches against a seaborne attack, as heavy Japanese artillery fire and air raids begin.
1927 Montreal Quebec - L'Université de Montréal becomes a self-governing body separate from Laval.
1905 Saskatchewan - Walter Scott leads the Liberal Party to victory in the first provincial election, winning 17 out of 25 seats; former NWT Premier F. W. G. Haultain leader of the opposition Provincial Rights Party.
1898 Montreal Quebec - First passenger train runs over newly reconstructed Victoria Railway Bridge, Montreal; original 1859 tube replaced by a double track steel bridge.
1894 St. John's, Newfoundland - Daniel Joseph Greene 1850-1911 sworn in as Liberal Prime Minister of Newfoundland replacing Conservative Augustus Goodridge, after corrupt 1893 elections, and the Dec. 10 collapse of 2 major Newfoundland financial institutions; passed the Disabilities Removal Act, that let candidates disqualified because of election irregularities seek re-election; this lets William Whiteway get back into the House, and resume the premiership on Greene's resignation Feb. 08, 1895.
1893 PEI - Prince Edward Island votes for prohibition of alcoholic beverages.
1883 Ottawa Ontario - Border fixed between Ontario and Manitoba.
1849 Toronto Ontario - George Brown 1818-1880 popularizes the term 'Clear Grit' in the Toronto 'Globe'; originally named by party founder Peter Perry; Clear Grits were radical Canada West Reformers opposed to the policies of Baldwin & LaFontaine.
1837 Montreal Quebec - John Colborne, Baron Seaton 1778-1863 sets out toward St-Eustache with 2,000 British Army regulars in two brigades commanded by Wetherall and Maitland.
1837 Buffalo New York - William Lyon Mackenzie 1795-1861 sets up a provisional government and proclaims a Canadian Republic on Navy Island in the Niagara River; disgusted by a lack of support, he leaves Jan. 14, 1838 and settles in New York City.
1786 Montreal Quebec - Gregory & McLeod merge with the North West Company on 20-share basis.
1783 Halifax Nova Scotia - Rough census shows 30,000 United Empire Loyalists now living in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.
1665 Quebec Quebec - Alexandre de Prouville, Marquis de Tracy c1596-1670 makes a temporary peace with Iroquois.

End of C/P.

 

[henric]

December 14th 2013 - This Date in History.


Events:C/P.

557 – Constantinople is severely damaged by an earthquake.
835 – Sweet Dew Incident: Emperor Wenzong of the Tang Dynasty conspires to kill the powerful eunuchs of the Tang court, but the plot is foiled.
1287 – St. Lucia's flood: The Zuiderzee sea wall in the Netherlands collapses, killing over 50,000 people.
1542 – Princess Mary Stuart becomes Mary, Queen of Scots.
1751 – The Theresian Military Academy is founded as the first Military Academy in the world.
1782 – The Montgolfier brothers' first balloon lifts off on its first test flight.
1812 РThe French invasion of Russia comes to an end as the remnants of the Grande Arm̩e are expelled from Russia.
1814 – War of 1812: The Royal Navy seizes control of Lake Borgne, Louisiana.
1819 – Alabama becomes the 22nd U.S. state.
1836 – The Toledo War unofficially ends.
1896 – The Glasgow Underground Railway is opened by the Glasgow District Subway Company.
1900 – Quantum mechanics: Max Planck presents a theoretical derivation of his black-body radiation law.
1902 – The Commercial Pacific Cable Company lays the first Pacific telegraph cable, from Ocean Beach, San Francisco to Honolulu, Hawaii.
1903 – The Wright brothers make their first attempt to fly with the Wright Flyer at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
1907 – The schooner Thomas W. Lawson runs aground and founders near the Hellweather's Reef within the Isles of Scilly in a gale. The pilot and 15 seamen die.
1909 – New South Wales Premier Charles Wade signed the Seat of Government Surrender Act 1909, formally completing the transfer of State land to the Commonwealth to create the Australian Capital Territory.
1911 – Roald Amundsen's team, comprising himself, Olav Bjaaland, Helmer Hanssen, Sverre Hassel, and Oscar Wisting, becomes the first to reach the South Pole.
1913 – Haruna, the fourth and last ship of the Kongō-class, launches, eventually becoming one of the Japanese workhorses during World War I and World War II.
1914 – Lisandro de la Torre and others found the Democratic Progressive Party (Partido Demócrata Progresista, PDP) at the Hotel Savoy, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
1918 – Friedrich Karl von Hessen, a German prince elected by the Parliament of Finland to become King Väinö I, renounces the Finnish throne.
1918 – The President of Portugal Sidónio Pais is assassinated.
1939 – Winter War: The Soviet Union is expelled from the League of Nations for invading Finland.
1941 – World War II: Japan signs treaty of alliance with Thailand.
1946 – The United Nations General Assembly votes to establish its headquarters in New York, New York.
1955 – Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Jordan, Laos, Libya, Nepal, Portugal, Romania, Spain and Sri Lanka join the United Nations.
1958 – The third Soviet Antarctic Expedition becomes the first expedition to reach The Pole of Relative Inaccessibility in the Antarctic.
1961 – Tanzania joins the United Nations.
1962 – NASA's Mariner 2 becomes the first spacecraft to fly by Venus.
1963 – Baldwin Hills Reservoir wall bursts, killing five people and damaging hundreds of homes in Los Angeles, California.
1964 – American Civil Rights Movement: Heart of Atlanta Motel v. United States – The Supreme Court of the United States rules that the U.S. Congress can use the Constitution's Commerce Clause to fight discrimination.
1971 – Over 200 of East Pakistan's (now Bangladesh) intellectuals are massacred by the Pakistan Army and their local allies.
1972 – Apollo program: Eugene Cernan is the last person to walk on the moon, after he and Harrison Schmitt complete the third and final extra-vehicular activity (EVA) of the Apollo 17 mission.
1981 – Arab–Israeli conflict: Israel's Knesset passes The Golan Heights Law, extending Israeli law to the area of the Golan Heights.
1983 – The third Congress of the Communist Youth of Greece starts.
1988 – The ET3 television network is launched in Thessaloniki, Greece.
1992 – War in Abkhazia: During the Siege of Tkvarcheli, a helicopter carrying evacuees from Tkvarcheli, Abkhazia, Georgia is shot down, resulting in at least 52 deaths, 25 of which are children. The incident catalyses more concerted Russian military intervention on behalf of Abkhazia.
1994 – Construction begins on the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River.
1995 – Yugoslav Wars: The Dayton Agreement is signed in Paris, France by leaders of various governments.
1999 – Torrential rains cause flash floods in Vargas, Venezuela, resulting in tens of thousands of deaths, the destruction of thousands of homes, and the complete collapse of the state's infrastructure.
2003 – The President of Pakistan Pervez Musharraf narrowly escapes an assassination attempt.
2004 – The Millau Viaduct, the tallest bridge in the world, near Millau, France is officially opened.
2008 – Muntadhar al-Zaidi threw his shoes at then U.S. President George W. Bush during a press conference in Baghdad, Iraq.
2012 – 28 people, including the gunman, were killed in a mass shooting in Sandy Hook village, Newtown, Connecticut.



Today's Canadian Headline...


1956 TORIES CHOOSE DIEF AS THEIR CHIEF
Winnipeg Manitoba - John George Diefenbaker 1895-1979 chosen as party leader on first ballot by Progressive Conservative Party, replacing George Drew; wins 744 votes, to Donald Fleming's 393 and Davie Fulton's 117.

1837
St-Eustache, Quebec - Sir John Colborne leads 1,200 British regulars, a regiment of 600 from the Quebec garrison commanded by Wetherall and Maitland, and 200 militia to the town of St-Eustache, in the County of Deux-Montagnes 31 km northwest of Montreal; most Patriotes have fled, but 400 rebels remain, led by Dr. Jean-Olivier Chénier and Amury Girod, holed up in the church, the presbytery, the convent and neighbouring houses; after noon Colborne gives the order to attack; nearly 100 rebels are killed, including Chénier, in five hours of withering British cannon and grapeshot fire; 18 taken prisoner and the village burned to the ground.


In Other Events...


1996 Honolulu, Hawaii - Ottawa diva Alanis Morissette makes the final stop of her 1996 tour at Richardson Field; after her last song, she celebrates the end of the tour by throwing whipped cream pies at her four band members.
1993 Quebec Quebec - Daniel Johnson 1944- acclaimed as leader of the Quebec Liberal Party on resignation of Robert Bourassa; serves as Premier of Quebec 1993-94; son of the late Quebec premier Daniel Johnson and older brother of Quebec premier Pierre-Marc Johnson; educated at the universities of Montreal, London and Harvard Business School; 1973 joined Power Corp.; 1978 Vice-President; 1981 Liberal MNA; Bourassa's Minister of Industry and Commerce ; 1988 President of the Treasury Board; 1994 lost Sept 12th election to Jacques Parizeau's PQ.
1993 Montreal Quebec - Richard Barnabé beaten by 6 Montreal police officers.
1990 Winnipeg Manitoba - Canadian Wheat Board has $1 billion loss; bigger than total of all losses since founding in 1935; selling wheat for $40-50 a tonne less than it pays farmers.
1987 Toronto Ontario - Ben Johnson named Canada's Male Athlete of the Year.
1982 Los Angeles California - Kings' Marcel Dionne becomes ninth NHLer to score 500 goals.
1968 Montreal Quebec - FLQ terrorists plant three bombs in Montreal; two disarmed, one explodes.
1967 Ottawa Ontario - Lester Bowles L. B. Pearson 1897-1972 announces he will resign as Liberal leader, after Party selects a successor at an April 1968 conference.
1966 Ottawa Ontario - Parliament passes Act to incorporate The Bank of British Columbia; opens July, 1968; Canada's 10th chartered bank.
1966 Ottawa Ontario - Canadian Pacific Railway authorized to abandon the Montreal and Ottawa line from Ottawa Union Station across the Interprovincial Bridge to Hull.
1962 Victoria BC - Remi J. De Roo 1924- ordained Roman Catholic bishop of Victoria; believer in social action and liberation theology; a founding member of the World Conference of Religions for Peace, and Chairman of the Human Rights Commission of British Columbia.
1961 Quebec Quebec - Claire Kirkland-Casgrain sworn in as Quebec's first female MNA; another new member is Pierre Laporte.
1960 Ottawa Ontario - Government sets retirement age of Supreme Court judges at 75; effective March, 1961.
1960 Ottawa Ontario - Ottawa University starts $31,500,000 expansion; $7 million hospital included.
1957 Quebec Quebec - Opening of the new Quebec Airport at l'Ancienne-Lorette.
1951 Ottawa Ontario - Canada lifts all foreign exchange controls.
1950 Yokohama Japan - Lieutenant-Colonel J.R. Stone and the 2nd Battalion of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry arrive in Yokohama en route to Korea; begin intensive training at Miryang, near Taegu after Communist China had intervened on the side of the North Koreans.
1943 Casa Berardi, Italy - Canadian Major Paul Triquet wins VC in capturing Casa Berardi, north of Moro.
1929 Ontario - Canada hands over control of and revenue from, land, water, oil and other provincial natural resources to Manitoba and Alberta; under the Natural Resources Transfer Agreement; unlike other Canadian provinces, the prairie provinces did not receive control over mineral resources or Crown lands when they became provinces; agreement made with Saskatchewan and British Columbia the following year; BC a Crown colony when it joined Confederation, with control over its resources, but transferred most to federal jurisdiction when it transferred provincial railway lands to Ottawa in the 1880s.
1916 Quebec Quebec - Quebec bans women from entering the legal profession.
1901 Yoho BC - Opening of Yoho National Park, with land set aside in 1885.
1841 Halifax, Nova Scotia - Samuel Cunard awarded 8 year contract to operate a fast stage coach service between Halifax and Pictou through Truro; required each trip to be completed within 17 hours, one way, with four horses per coach; given annual subsidy of £1550; to connect at Pictou with the steam packet boats running between Pictou and Quebec, and at Halifax with boats running to England; line a link in the British Admiralty's new London-Quebec Royal Mail service
1837 Brantford Ontario - Charles Duncombe and his rebel followers disperse as Alan MacNab's militia approaches from Hamilton.
1708 Placentia Newfoundland - Philippe Pasteur de Costebelle 1661-1717 Governor of Placentia, leads company of 170 men to attack St. John's; with Joseph de Mombeton de Saint-Ovide de Brouillan 1676-1755.

End of C/P.

 

[henric]

December 15th 2013 - This Date in History.


Events:C/P.

533 – Vandalic War: Byzantine general Belisarius defeats the Vandals, commanded by King Gelimer, at the Battle of Tricamarum.
1161 – Military officers conspire against Emperor Hailingwang of the Jin Dynasty and assassinate the emperor in a military camp near the Yangtze River front.
1167 – Sicilian Chancellor Stephen du Perche moves the royal court to Messina to prevent a rebellion.
1256 – Hulagu Khan captures and destroys the Hashshashin stronghold at Alamut Castle (in present-day Iran) as part of the Mongol offensive on Islamic southwest Asia.
1467 – Stephen III of Moldavia defeats Matthias Corvinus of Hungary, with the latter being injured thrice, at the Battle of Baia.
1778 – American Revolutionary War: British and French fleets clash in the Battle of St. Lucia.
1791 – The United States Bill of Rights becomes law when ratified by the Virginia General Assembly.
1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Nashville – Union forces under George Thomas almost completely destroy the Army of Tennessee under John Hood.
1890 – Hunkpapa Lakota leader Sitting Bull is killed on Standing Rock Indian Reservation, leading to the Wounded Knee Massacre.
1905 – The Pushkin House is established in Saint Petersburg, Russia, to preserve the cultural heritage of Alexander Pushkin
1906 – The London Underground's Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway opens.
1913 – Nicaragua becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires Convention.
1914 – World War I: The Serbian Army recaptures Belgrade from the invading Austro-Hungarian Army.
1914 – A gas explosion at Mitsubishi Hōjō coal mine, in Kyushu, Japan, kills 687.
1917 – World War I: An armistice is reached between the new Bolshevik government and the Central Powers.
1933 – The Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution officially becomes effective, repealing the Eighteenth Amendment that prohibited the sale, manufacture, and transportation of alcohol.
1939 – Gone with the Wind receives its premiere at Loew's Grand Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia, United States.
1941 – The Holocaust: German troops murder over 15,000 Jews at Drobytsky Yar, a ravine southeast of the city of Kharkiv, Ukraine, Soviet Union.
1942 – World War II: The Battle of Mount Austen, the Galloping Horse, and the Sea Horse begins during the Guadalcanal Campaign.
1943 – World War II: The Battle of Arawe begins during the New Britain Campaign.
1945 – Occupation of Japan: General Douglas MacArthur orders that Shinto be abolished as the state religion of Japan.
1946 – U.S.-backed Iranian troops evict the leadership of the breakaway Republic of Mahabad, putting an end to the Iran crisis of 1946.
1946 – The first election to the Representative Assembly of French India was held.
1954 – The Charter for the Kingdom of the Netherlands is signed.
1960 – Richard Pavlik is arrested for plotting to assassinate U.S. President-Elect John F. Kennedy.
1960 – King Mahendra of Nepal suspends the country's constitution, dissolves parliament, dismisses the cabinet, and imposes direct rule.
1961 – Adolf Eichmann is sentenced to death after being found guilty by an Israeli court of 15 criminal charges, including charges of crimes against humanity, crimes against the Jewish people, and membership of an outlawed organization.
1965 – Project Gemini: Gemini 6A, crewed by Wally Schirra and Thomas Stafford, is launched from Cape Kennedy, Florida. Four orbits later, it achieves the first space rendezvous, with Gemini 7.
1967 – The Silver Bridge over the Ohio River collapses, killing 46 people.
1970 – Soviet spacecraft Venera 7 successfully land on Venus. It is the first successful soft landing on another planet
1970 – The South Korean ferry Namyong Ho capsizes in the Korea Strait, killing over 300 people.
1973 – John Paul Getty III, grandson of American billionaire J. Paul Getty, is found alive near Naples, Italy, after being kidnapped by an Italian gang on July 10.
1973 – The American Psychiatric Association votes 13–0 to remove homosexuality from its official list of psychiatric disorders, the DSM-II.
1976 – Western Samoa becomes a member of the United Nations.
1976 – The oil tanker MV Argo Merchant runs aground near Nantucket, Massachusetts, causing one of the worst marine oil spills in history.
1978 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter announces that the United States will recognize the People's Republic of China and sever diplomatic relations with Taiwan
1981 – A suicide car bombing targeting the Iraqi embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, levels the embassy and kills 61 people, including Iraq's ambassador to Lebanon. The attack is considered the first modern suicide bombing.
1993 – The Troubles: The Downing Street Declaration is issued by British Prime Minister John Major and Irish Taoiseach Albert Reynolds.
1994 – Palau becomes a member of the United Nations.
1997 – Tajikistan Airlines Flight 3183 crashes in the desert near Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, killing 85.
1997 – The Treaty of Bangkok is signed allowing the transformation of Southeast Asia into a nuclear weapon-free zone.
2000 – The third reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant is shut down.
2001 – The Leaning Tower of Pisa reopens after 11 years and $27,000,000 spent to fortify it, without fixing its famous lean.
2005 – Latvia amends its constitution to eliminate possibility of same-sex couples being entitled to marry.
2005 – Introduction of the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor into USAF active service.
2006 – First flight of the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II.
2009 – Boeing's new 787 Dreamliner makes its maiden flight from Seattle, Washington.
2010 – A boat carrying 90 asylum seekers crashes into rocks off the coast of Christmas Island, Australia, killing 48 people.
2013 – 50 year anniversary of Anime known as Otaku Day.



Today's Canadian Headline...


1902 GG SAYS HELLO TO KING
Sydney, Nova Scotia - Governor-General Gilbert John Elliot, Earl of Minto 1854-1914 sends greetings to King Edward VII using Marconi's radio system based at Table Head in Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, via Poldhu, Cornwall, England; this is the first intelligible transatlantic radio message; a year earlier, Marconi had successfully sent a test signal from Cornwall to St. John's, Newfoundland.

1964

Ottawa Ontario - Commons votes 163-78 to adopt design for a new National Flag of Canada at 2 am, after closure invoked December 14, and a total of 250 speeches; Senate approval followed Dec. 17; Royal Proclamation signed by Her Majesty Jan. 28, 1965; flag officially unfurled Feb. 15, 1965; based on a Royal Military College design suggested by George Stanley; Canada's official flag from 1867 had been Britain's Union Flag, although the Red Ensign with the Canadian badge was regularly flown for qualified purposes; the red and white colours and the maple leaf emblem were authorized by George V on Nov. 21, 1921, as advocated by A. Fortescue Duguid.


In Other Events...


1995 Quebec Quebec - Jacques Parizeau resigns as Quebec's 26th Premier; after referendum loss and comments about being defeated by the ethnic vote and money.
1994 Paris France - UNESCO declares million hectare Tatshenshini-Alsek wilderness in the north-west corner of BC as a world heritage site; along with adjacent wilderness preserves in Alaska and the Yukon, amounting to world's largest site, with a total of 8.5 million hectares.
1993 Montreal Quebec - Synchronized swimmer Sylvie Fréchette finally receives her Barcelona Olympics gold medal that was awarded to American Kristen Babb-Sprague because of a judge's error.
1992 Montreal Quebec - Former Expo 67 French pavilion on Ile Notre-Dame announced as the site of the first casino in the province.
1991 Fajardo, Puerto Rico - Ronald George leads BC chiefs protesting Columbus 500th Anniversary celebrations; asks Spanish consul to apologize for native oppression.
1988 Ottawa Ontario - Supreme Court strikes down sections of Quebec's Bill 101 requiring that commercial signs be in French only; called an unreasonable violation of freedom of expression. On Dec. 18, Robert Bourassa will exercise Clause 33 of the Charter of Rights, the 'notwithstanding clause', Quebec's constitutional right to override the decision; also passes Bill 178 requiring French only on outside signs; permits bilingual signs inside; three of his anglophone cabinet ministers resign, and on Dec. 19, Premier Gary Filmon withdraws his resolution to ratify Meech Lake from the Manitoba legislature.
1988 Quebec Quebec - Jean Perron appointed head coach of the Quebec Nordiques, after Ron Lapointe resigns to battle cancer.
1984 New York City - Springhill, Nova Scotia's Anne Murray has a Billboard #1 hit with Nobody Loves Me Like You Do (with Dave Loggins).
1982 Toronto Ontario - Ontario caps wage raises for 500,000 public employees at 5%; from Oct. 1, 1982 to Sept 30, 1983.
1980 Canada - Canadian dollar closes at US$.8271, a 47-year low.
1979 St. Catherines, Ontario - Photo editor Chris Haney and sportswriter Scott Abbott devise the Trivial Pursuit board game, with a current events theme; form investor group with Haney's brother John and friend Ed Werner, and 30 others, including a copyboy from their newspaper; raised $40,000, rented an office and paid some of their help with shares; first 1,100 sets cost $75 each to manufacture; sold to retailers for $15 a game; took off at 1983 New York Toy Fair when distributed by US game company Selchow and Righter; now in 19 different languages.
1978 Cape Canaveral, Florida - NASA launches Anik IV, Canada's 4th domestic communications satellite.
1973 USA - Canadian jockey Sandy Hawley first jockey to win 500 races in one year.
1969 Winnipeg Manitoba - Opening of Red River Community College in Winnipeg.
1960 Dorval Quebec - Opening of Montreal's new $30 million International Air Terminal at Dorval.
1959 Toronto Ontario - European tubercular refugee group and families arrive in Canada; part of Canadian responsibility in World Refugee Year.
1951 Ottawa Ontario - Canada abolished foreign exchange controls.
1941 Ottawa Ontario - Cabinet War Committee discusses financial aid to Britain; 'the billion dollar gift'.
1925 New York New York - Montreal Canadiens beat NY Americans 3-1 in first NHL hockey game played in Madison Square Gardens.
1922 Ottawa Ontario - Canada signs new commercial treaty with France.
1919 Ottawa Ontario - Government proclaims general amnesty for those who avoided conscription during World War I.
1915 Victoria BC - William John Bowser 1867-1933 sworn in as BC Premier, replacing Richard McBride, in office since June 1, 1903; Bowser moved to Vancouver in 1891 to set up a law practice; 1903 first elected to the legislature as a Conservative; 1907 Attorney General; Premier until defeat Nov. 23, 1916; Leader of the Opposition until his defeat in 1924.
1913 Toronto Ontario - Irving Berlin attends opening of Loew's Yonge Street Theatre (today the Elgin), a vaudeville house; premieres his new song, The International Rag; theatre closed in 1982, but renovated and reopened in 1985 as the Elgin and Winter Garden Theatre.
1891 Springfield Massachusetts - Dr. James Naismith, from Almonte Ontario, asked by staff of YMCA's Springfield Training College to devise a game able to keep a group of incorrigible students busy during the winter months. A year later, Naismith's students played the first organized basketball game.
1869 Montreal Quebec - Prince Arthur opens the Montreal Curling Club, the city's first covered rink..
1858 Truro, Nova Scotia - Opening of Nova Scotia Railroad from Halifax to Truro; distance of 150 km.
1837 St-Benoît, Quebec - John Colborne, Baron Seaton 1778-1863 marches from St-Eustache to St. Benoît; gets remaining 150 Patriotes to surrender their arms without a fight; the following day, Colborne orders them released, but puts the village to the torch.
1629 Paris France - Samuel de Champlain returns home after meeting with the King of France regarding the settlement and trade at Quebec.

End C/P.

 

[henric]

December 16th 2013 - This Date in History.


Events:C/P.


755 – An Lushan revolts against Chancellor Yang Guozhong at Yanjing, initiating the An Lushan Rebellion during the Tang Dynasty of China.
1431 – Hundred Years' War: Henry VI of England is crowned King of France at Notre Dame in Paris.
1497 – Vasco da Gama rounds the Cape of Good Hope, the point where Bartolomeu Dias had previously turned back to Portugal.
1575 – An earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 8.5 strikes Valdivia, Chile.
1598 – Second War of Jeong-yu: Battle of Noryang – Chinese General Chen Lin heavily damages the Japanese fleet; however, the Japanese army succeeds in retreating.
1653 – English Interregnum: The Protectorate – Oliver Cromwell becomes Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland.
1689 – Convention Parliament: The Declaration of Right is embodied in the Bill of Rights.
1707 – Last recorded eruption of Mount Fuji in Japan.
1761 – Seven Years' War: After a four-month siege, the Russians under Pyotr Rumyantsev take the Prussian fortress of Kołobrzeg.
1773 – American Revolution: Boston Tea Party – Members of the Sons of Liberty disguised as Mohawk Indians dump hundreds of crates of tea into Boston harbor as a protest against the Tea Act.
1811 – The first two in a series of four severe earthquakes occur in the vicinity of New Madrid, Missouri.
1826 – Benjamin W. Edwards rides into Mexican-controlled Nacogdoches, Texas, and declares himself ruler of the Republic of Fredonia.
1838 – Great Trek: Battle of Blood River – Voortrekkers led by Andries Pretorius and Sarel Cilliers defeat Zulu impis, led by Dambuza (Nzobo) and Ndlela kaSompisi in what is today KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
1850 – The Charlotte Jane and the Randolph bring the first of the Canterbury Pilgrims to Lyttelton, New Zealand.
1863 – American Civil War: Joseph E. Johnston replaces Braxton Bragg as commander of the Confederate Army of Tennessee.
1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Nashville – Major General George Thomas's Union forces defeat Lieutenant General John Bell Hood's Confederate Army of Tennessee.
1903 – Taj Mahal Palace & Tower hotel in Bombay first opens its doors to the guests.
1907 – The American Great White Fleet begins its circumnavigation of the world.
1912 – First Balkan War: The Royal Hellenic Navy defeats the Ottoman Navy at the Battle of Elli.
1914 – World War I: German battleships under Franz von Hipper bombard the English ports of Hartlepool and Scarborough.
1918 – Vincas Mickevičius-Kapsukas declares the formation of the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic.
1920 – The Haiyuan earthquake, magnitude 8.5, rocks the Gansu province in China, killing an estimated 200,000.
1922 – President of Poland Gabriel Narutowicz is assassinated by Eligiusz Niewiadomski at the Zachęta Gallery in Warsaw.
1930 – Bank robber Herman Lamm and members of his crew are killed by a 200-strong posse, following a botched bank robbery in Clinton, Indiana.
1937 – Theodore Cole and Ralph Roe attempt to escape from the American federal prison on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay; neither is ever seen again.
1938 – Adolf Hitler institutes the Cross of Honor of the German Mother.
1941 – World War II: Japanese forces occupy Miri, Sarawak.
1942 – The Holocaust: Heinrich Himmler orders that Roma candidates for extermination be deported to Auschwitz.
1944 – World War II: The Battle of the Bulge begins with the surprise offensive of three German armies through the Ardennes forest.
1946 – Thailand joins the United Nations.
1947 – William Shockley, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain build the first practical point-contact transistor.
1950 – Korean War: U.S. President Harry S. Truman declares a state of emergency, after Chinese troops enter the fight in support of communist North Korea.
1957 – Sir Feroz Khan Noon replaces Ibrahim Ismail Chundrigar as Prime Minister of Pakistan.
1960 – 1960 New York air disaster: While approaching New York's Idlewild Airport, a United Airlines Douglas DC-8 collides with a TWA Lockheed Super Constellation in a blinding snowstorm over Staten Island, killing 134.
1965 – Vietnam War: General William Westmoreland sends U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara a request for 243,000 more men by the end of 1966.
1968 – Second Vatican Council: Official revocation of the Edict of Expulsion of Jews from Spain.
1971 – Bangladesh Liberation War and Indo-Pakistani War of 1971: The surrender of the Pakistan Army brings an end to both conflicts. (This is commemorated annually as Victory Day in Bangladesh, and as Vijay Diwas in India.)
1971 – Britain recognizes Bahrain's independence. (This is commemorated annually as Bahrain's National Day.)
1972 – Vietnam War: Henry Kissinger announces that North Vietnam has left private peace negotiations, in Paris, France.
1978 – Cleveland, Ohio, becomes the first major American city to default on its financial obligations since the Great Depression.
1979 – Libya joins four other OPEC nations in raising crude oil prices, which has an immediate, dramatic effect on the United States.
1985 – Paul Castellano and Thomas Bilotti are shot dead on the orders of John Gotti, who assumes leadership of New York's Gambino crime family
1986 – Gennady Kolbin replaces Dinmukhamed Konayev as First Secretary of the Kazakh Communist Party, prompting the Jeltoqsan protests which began the next day.
1989 – Romanian Revolution: Protests break out in Timișoara, Romania, in response to an attempt by the government to evict dissident Hungarian pastor László Tőkés.
1989 – U.S. Appeals Court Judge Robert Smith Vance is assassinated by a mail bomb sent by Walter Leroy Moody, Jr.
1991 – Kazakhstan gains its independence from the Soviet Union.
1997 – A Japanese airing of the "Dennō Senshi Porygon" episode of Pokémon induces seizures in 685 viewers.
1998 – Iraq disarmament crisis: Operation Desert Fox – The United States and United Kingdom bomb targets in Iraq.
2003 – President George W. Bush signs the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 into law. The law establishes the United States' first national standards for the sending of commercial e-mail and requires the Federal Trade Commission to enforce its provisions.
2012 – 2012 Delhi gang rape: A 23-year-old woman is viciously gang raped on a bus in Delhi, India, sparking an international outcry.



Today's Canadian Headline...


1992 SPAN OF GREEN CABLES ??
Charlottetown PEI - Ottawa, New Brunswick and PEI sign deal to build 13 km $800 m bridge to mainland; Ottawa to supply $60 m for roads and redevelop Borden, Cape Tormentine; the Confederation Bridge does not yet have a name.

1891

Quebec Quebec - Honoré Mercier 1840-1894 dismissed as Premier of Quebec by Lieutenant-Governor Auguste-Réal Angers; after a federal Senate inquiry and provincial Royal Commission found he awarded subsidies for the Baie des Chaleurs Railway in return for Liberal party funds. In 1902, he is indicted for corruption, but is acquitted Nov. 04, 1892.

1895

Halifax Nova Scotia - Royal Canadian Sea Cadet Corps organized to interest young men in serving in a planned Canadian Navy.


In Other Events...


1994 Montreal Quebec - Pop diva Céline Dion marries her long-time manager René Angélil.
1994 Halifax, Nova Scotia - Last direct VIA train between Montreal and Halifax.
1994 Quebec - Bloc québécois and Parti québécois organizations join forces to fight in the referendum campaign.
1991 Sydney Australia - Conrad Black's Hollinger Inc. purchases 15% of Australia's John Fairfax Group Ltd for $1.32 billion; largest single shareholder.
1991 Ottawa Ontario - Gerald 'Ged' Baldwin dies at age 84; elected MP for Peace River in 1958; served for over 20 years; the prime mover behind Canada's access to information legislation.
1991 Halifax Nova Scotia - Bernard Bradley performs Canada's first transplant of fetal tissue to battle effects of Parkinson's disease; Victoria General Hospital procedure stimulates dopamine.
1991 Ottawa Ontario - Tom Siddon and Inuit of Eastern Arctic draft Nunavut land deal; $1.15 billion in grants, title to 250,000 sq km; plebiscite set for April 1992 after 15 years of negotiation.
1990 Ottawa Ontario - Brian Mulroney 1939- appoints MP Jim Edwards, Senator Gérald Beaudoin to head joint Committee on Constitutional Reform; to devise new amending formula.
1986 Ottawa Ontario - Independent MP Robert Toupin joins the New Democratic Party, giving them their first Member of Parliament from Quebec.
1984 Montreal Quebec - Olympic champion diver Sylvie Bernier announces her retirement from the sport.
1976 Ottawa Ontario - Réal Caouette 1917-1976 dies; politician, leader of the Social Credit Party; born at Amos, Quebec Sept. 26, 1917. Caouette joined the Socreds in 1939; 1946 elected MP in a by-election as a member of the Union des électeurs; 1961 allied his Ralliement des Créditistes with the national Social Credit Party; ran for leadership against Robert Thompson; 1962 won 26 of the 30 Social Credit seats, holding the balance of power in the Diefenbaker minority government; 1963 broke with Thompson as leader of his own Ralliement des créditistes with 12 Quebec MPs; 1971 reunited the party as national leader; 1976 retired due to ill health; André Fortin became leader.
1971 Arvida Quebec - Arvida smelter produces its 10 millionth ingot of aluminum.
1953 Ottawa Ontario - Parliament passes Bill to establish Department of Northern Affairs and Natural Resources.
1951 Ottawa Ontario - Vancouver actor Raymond Burr (later of Perry Mason and Ironside fame) plays Sgt. Joe Friday's boss in an NBC-TV preview of the police drama Dragnet.
1950 Montreal Quebec - Canadien rookies Jean Béliveau and Bernie Geoffrion play their first NHL game, tying the Rangers 1-1; Boom Boom scores his first career goal.
1949 London England - British Parliament amends British North America Act; Canadian Parliament can now amend the Constitution in federal matters only.
1948 Winnipeg Manitoba - Walter Kaufmann conducts the first performance of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra in the Winnipeg Auditorium; 1958 succeeded by Victor Feldbrill; 1968 moves to the Manitoba Centennial Concert Hall with George Cleve conducting; official orchestra of the Manitoba Opera Association and Royal Winnipeg Ballet.
1922 Toronto Ontario - Montreal Canadiens great Aurèle Joliat scores 2 goals in his NHL debut, but his team loses to the Maple Leafs 7-2.
1910 Ottawa Ontario - Group of 800 farmers marches on Ottawa, to demand US reciprocity and more preference for British goods.
1901 St. John's, Newfoundland - Guglielmo Marconi 1874-1937 is officially notified by the Anglo-American Telegraph Company that it will take legal action against him unless he immediately ceases his wireless experiments and removes his equipment from Newfoundland; Anglo-American had a fifty-year monopoly on electrical communications in Newfoundland, that began in 1858, and is determined to hinder radio telegraphy, which it knows is a serious threat to its transatlantic electric telegraph business operated by submarine cables; Marconi soon decides to move his base of operations to Cape Breton Island, and is welcomed there on Dec. 26 with open arms.
1895 Port Menier, Quebec - French chocolate baron Henri Menier acquires Anticosti Island in the St. Lawrence for $125,000; builds a chateau and imports a herd of deer for hunting; previous attempts at colonization had failed.
1892 Quebec - Louis-Olivier Taillon reelected Conservative Premier of Quebec.
1884 St. Laurent, Saskatchewan - Louis Riel 1844-1885 helps the Metis of St. Laurent send petition on Metis grievances and demands to the Secretary of State in Ottawa.
1837 St-Benoît, Quebec - Sir John Colborne 1778-1863 orders 150 Patriotes captured at St-Benoît released, but puts the village to the torch; orders Colonel Maitland to proceed to St-Scholastique and Ste-Thérèse.
1824 Langley BC - Hudson's Bay Company Chief Trader James McMillan arrives at the Fraser River near Derby; later the site of the first Fort Langley.

End of C/P.

 

[henric]

December 17th 2013 - This Date in History.


Events:C/P.


497 BC – The first Saturnalia festival was celebrated in ancient Rome.
546 – Siege of Rome: The Ostrogoths under king Totila plunder the city, by bribing the Byzantine garrison.
920 – Romanos I Lekapenos is crowned co-emperor of the underage Constantine VII.
942 – Assassination of William I of Normandy.
1273 – Death of poet & Sufi mystic Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rumi.
1398 – Sultan Nasir-u Din Mehmud's armies in Delhi are defeated by Timur.
1538 – Pope Paul III excommunicates Henry VIII of England.
1577 – Francis Drake sails from Plymouth, England, on a secret mission to explore the Pacific coast of the Americas for Queen Elizabeth I of England.
1583 – Cologne War: Forces under Ernest of Bavaria defeat troops under Gebhard Truchsess von Waldburg at the Siege of Godesberg.
1586 – Go-Yōzei becomes Emperor of Japan.
1600 – Marriage of Henry IV of France and Marie de' Medici.
1718 – War of the Quadruple Alliance: Great Britain declares war on Spain.
1777 – American Revolution: France formally recognizes the United States.
1790 – Discovery of the Aztec calendar stone.
1807 – Napoleonic Wars: France issues the Milan Decree, which confirms the Continental System.
1812 – War of 1812: U.S. forces attack a friendly Lenape village in the Battle of the Mississinewa.
1819 – Simón Bolívar declares the independence of Gran Colombia in Angostura (now Ciudad Bolívar in Venezuela).
1837 – A fire in the Winter Palace of Saint Petersburg kills 30 guards.
1862 – American Civil War: General Ulysses S. Grant issues General Order No. 11, expelling Jews from parts of Tennessee, Mississippi, and Kentucky.
1865 – First performance of the Unfinished Symphony by Franz Schubert.
1892 – First issue of Vogue is published
1896 – Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania's Schenley Park Casino, which was the first multi-purpose arena with the technology to create an artificial ice surface in North America, is destroyed in a fire.
1903 – The Wright brothers make their first powered, heavier-than-air flight in the Wright Flyer at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
1907 – Ugyen Wangchuck is crowned first King of Bhutan
1918 – Darwin Rebellion: Up to 1,000 demonstrators march on Government House in Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia.
1919 – Uruguay becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.
1926 РAntanas Smetona assumes power in Lithuania as the 1926 coup d'̩tat is successful.
1927 – Indian revolutionary Rajendra Lahiri is hanged in Gonda jail, Uttar Pradesh, India, two days before the scheduled date.
1928 – Indian revolutionaries Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev Thapar and Shivaram Rajguru assassinate British police officer James Saunders in Lahore, Punjab, to avenge the death of Lala Lajpat Rai at the hands of the police. The three were executed in 1931.
1935 – First flight of the Douglas DC-3.
1938 – Otto Hahn discovers the nuclear fission of the heavy element uranium, the scientific and technological basis of nuclear energy.
1939 – World War II: Battle of the River Plate – The Admiral Graf Spee is scuttled by Captain Hans Langsdorff outside Montevideo.
1941 – World War II: Japanese forces land in Northern Borneo.
1944 – World War II: Battle of the Bulge – Malmedy massacre – American 285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion POWs are shot by Waffen-SS Kampfgruppe Peiper.
1947 – First flight of the Boeing B-47 Stratojet strategic bomber.
1950 – The F-86 Sabre's first mission over Korea.
1951 – The American Civil Rights Congress delivers "We Charge Genocide" to the United Nations.
1957 – The United States successfully launches the first Atlas intercontinental ballistic missile at Cape Canaveral, Florida.
1960 – Troops loyal to Haile Selassie I in Ethiopia crush the coup that began December 13, returning power to their leader upon his return from Brazil. Haile Selassie absolves his son of any guilt.
1960 – 1960 Munich Convair 340 crash: 20 passengers and crew on board as well as 32 people on the ground are killed.
1961 – Niterói circus fire: Fire breaks out during a performance by the Gran Circus Norte-Americano in the city of Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, killing more than 500.
1967 – Australian Prime Minister Harold Holt disappears while swimming near Portsea, Victoria, and is presumed drowned.
1969 – The SALT I talks begin.
1969 – Project Blue Book: The United States Air Force closes its study of UFOs.
1970 – Polish 1970 protests: In Gdynia, soldiers fire at workers emerging from trains, killing dozens.
1973 – Thirty passengers are killed in an attack by Palestinian terrorists on Rome's ******** da Vinci–Fiumicino Airport.
1981 – American Brigadier General James L. Dozier is abducted by the Red Brigades in Verona, Italy.
1983 – Provisional IRA members detonate a car bomb at Harrods Department Store in London, England, United Kingdom. Three police officers and three civilians are killed.
1989 – The first episode of television series The Simpsons, "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire", airs in the United States.
1989 – Romanian Revolution: Protests continue in Timișoara, Romania, with rioters breaking into the Romanian Communist Party's District Committee building and attempting to set it on fire.
1989 – Fernando Collor de Mello defeats Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in the second round of the Brazilian presidential election, becoming the first democratically elected President in almost 30 years.
1997 – The British Firearms (Amendment) (No. 2) Act 1997 comes into force, banning all handguns with the exception of antique and show weapons.
2002 – Second Congo War: The Congolese parties of the Inter Congolese Dialogue sign a peace accord which makes provision for transitional governance and legislative and presidential elections within two years.
2003 – The Soham murder trial ends at the Old Bailey in London, England, with Ian Huntley found guilty of two counts of murder. His girlfriend Maxine Carr is found guilty of perverting the course of justice.
2003 – SpaceShipOne, piloted by Brian Binnie, makes its first supersonic flight.
2005 – Anti-World Trade Organization protesters riot in Wan Chai, Hong Kong.
2005 – Jigme Singye Wangchuck abdicates the throne as King of Bhutan.
2009 – MV Danny F II sinks off the coast of Lebanon, resulting in the deaths of 44 people and over 28,000 animals.
2010 – Mohamed Bouazizi sets himself on fire. This act became the catalyst for the Tunisian revolution and the wider Arab Spring.



Today's Canadian Headline...


1992 MULRONEY SIGNS FREE TRADE DEAL
Ottawa Ontario - Brian Mulroney 1939- signs North American Free Trade Accord at ceremony on Parliament Hill; George Bush and Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari sign in separate ceremonies; deal still must be approved in legislatures of 3 countries.

1917

Canada - Robert Laird Borden 1854-1937 leads Unionist government to victory in general election, 153 seats to 82 for the Liberals (62 of which are from Quebec); wins only three seats in Quebec due to opposition to conscription.



In Other Events...


1996 Chechnya - Bandits kill 51-year-old Vancouver nurse Nancy Malloy and five other International Red Cross aid workers.
1996 Ottawa Ontario - Rodrigue Biron and Gilles Duceppe announce they are candidates to lead the Bloc québécois; Duceppe the eventual winner.
1991 St. John's, Newfoundland - Joseph Smallwood 1900-1991 dies at age 90; led Newfoundland into Confederation; was Premier for 23 years; wrote 'I Chose Canada.' A native of Gambo, he died leaving his Encyclopedia of Newfoundland unfinished.
1991 Montreal Quebec - Quebec government unveils Innovatech Grand Montreal, $415 million plan to renew city economy.
1985 Toronto Ontario - Queen's Park rules that acid rain polluters must cut sulphur dioxide emissions by 64% in the next eight years.
1982 Brussels Belgium - European Economic Community bans import of harp and hooded seal pelts, main market for the fur.
1974 Quebec - Pierre Laporte cleared of charges linking him with organized crime; by the Quebec Commission on Organized Crime; late Quebec Labour Minister killed by FLQ terrorists in 1970.
1969 Ottawa Ontario - Bank of Canada to print new bank notes; portraits of former Prime Ministers to replace Queen; Laurier on $5, Macdonald on $10, King on $50, Borden on $100.
1969 Ottawa Ontario - Ottawa puts the Company of Young Canadians under stricter management and financial control.
1968 Montreal Quebec - City of Montreal offers $10,000 reward for the arrest of FLQ terrorist bombers.
1966 Quebec - Opening of Quebec Autoroute 15.
1964 Ottawa Ontario - Senate approves new National Flag of Canada after Commons passage December 15. House of Commons votes to keep flying Union Jack as symbol of Canada's membership in Commonwealth.
1960 Quebec Quebec - Quebec joins National Hospital Insurance Plan, effective January 1, 1961; last province to join.
1960 Ottawa Ontario - Supreme Court of Canada rules that food stamp premiums are legal.
1953 Vancouver BC - Vancouver's first TV station, CBUT, goes on the air.
1947 Sept-Iles, Quebec - Sept-Iles linked with the world by telephone.
1946 Ottawa Ontario - Paul Martin Sr. sworn in as federal Minister of National Health and Welfare.
1945 Ottawa Ontario - Mackenzie King Cabinet passes three orders-in-council providing for the deportation of five classes of Japanese Canadians.
1941 Hong Kong - Japanese repeat demand for surrender of the colony, but it is summarily refused by the British governor; garrison, which includes 450 Canadians, has no hope of relief, with the sinking of two British battleships off Singapore, and the crippling of the US fleet at Pearl Harbor; invasion comes the following day.
1939 Britain - First contingents of Canadian First Division start arriving in England for service in World War II.
1939 Ottawa Ontario - Canada signs British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, a $1.281 billion program to train pilots, navigators, wireless operators and gunners from UK, Canada, Australia and NZ; instructors from the Royal Canadian Air Force working at 107 schools and 184 ancillary units across Canada will eventually train 130,000 Allied aircrew.
1924 Victoria BC - BC Iegislature adopts resolution opposing continued Oriental immigration.
1921 Ottawa Ontario - Beaver design of the new nickel 5¢ coin proclaimed; originally silver, but quickly changed to pure nickel; based on North West Company trade tokens.
1917 Ottawa Ontario - Samuel William Jacobs from Montreal the first Jewish Canadian elected to the House of Commons.
1891 Ottawa Ontario - Founding of the Canadian Bankers Association.
1875 Montreal Quebec - Violent bread riots at Montreal.
1867 Victoria BC - British Columbia Legislature meets for the first time at the new capital of Victoria.
1864 USA - US requires passports for entry from British North America for the first time.
1859 Montreal Quebec - Victoria Bridge opened to passenger train traffic; will be formally opened by the Prince of Wales, later Edward VII, on Aug. 25, 1860; the single-track iron tubular bridge entirely enclosed, which causes ventilation problems; slit 20" wide will be cut the full length of the bridge to let smoke escape.
1844 Montreal Quebec - Founding of the Institut canadien; printer Joseph Guiborda member.
1822 Dauphin Manitoba - Peter Fidler dies at Fort Dauphin, Hudson's Bay Company fur-trader, explorer and cartographer.
1792 Quebec Quebec - Opening of the first assembly of Lower Canada.
1640 Montreal Quebec - The Company of One Hundred Associates agreed to grant the whole of Montreal Island to the Société de Notre Dame de Montréal; except for mountain and area to southwest (Lachine).

End of C/P.

 

[henric]

December 18th 2013 - This Date in History.


Events:C/P.


218 BC – Second Punic War: Battle of the Trebia – Hannibal's Carthaginian forces defeat those of the Roman Republic.
1271 – Kublai Khan renames his empire "Yuan" (元 yuán), officially marking the start of the Yuan Dynasty of Mongolia and China.
1622 – Portuguese forces score a military victory over the Kingdom of Kongo at the Battle of Mbumbi in present-day Angola.
1642 – Abel Tasman becomes first European to sight New Zealand.
1655 – The Whitehall Conference ends with the determination that there was no law preventing Jews from re-entering England after the Edict of Expulsion of 1290.
1777 – The United States celebrates its first Thanksgiving, marking the recent victory by the Americans over British General John Burgoyne in the Battle of Saratoga in October.
1787 – New Jersey becomes the third state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.
1793 – Surrender of the frigate La Lutine by French Royalists to Lord Samuel Hood; renamed HMS Lutine, she later becomes a famous treasure wreck.
1878 – John Kehoe, the last of the Molly Maguires is executed in Pennsylvania.
1878 – The Al-Thani family become the rulers of the state of Qatar
1888 – Richard Wetherill and his brother in-law discover the ancient Indian ruins of Cliff Palace in Mesa Verde.
1892 – Premiere performance of The Nutcracker by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
1898 – Gaston de Chasseloup-Laubat sets the first officially recognized land speed record of 39.245 mph (63.159 km/h) in a Jeantaud electric car.
1900 – The Upper Ferntree Gully to Gembrook, Victoria Narrow-gauge (2 ft 6 in or 762 mm) Railway (now the Puffing Billy Railway) in Victoria, Australia is opened for traffic.
1912 – The Piltdown Man, later discovered to be a hoax, is announced by Charles Dawson.
1916 – World War I: The Battle of Verdun ends when German forces under Chief of staff Erich von Falkenhayn are defeated by the French, and suffer 337,000 casualties.
1917 – The resolution containing the language of the Eighteenth Amendment to enact Prohibition is passed by the United States Congress.
1932 – The Chicago Bears defeat the Portsmouth Spartans 9-0 in the first ever NFL Championship Game. Because of a blizzard, the game is moved from Wrigley Field to the Chicago Stadium, the field measuring 80 yards (73 m) long.
1935 – The Lanka Sama Samaja Party is founded in Ceylon.
1939 – World War II: The Battle of the Heligoland Bight, the first major air battle of the war, takes place.
1944 – World War II: 77 B-29 Superfortress and 200 other aircraft of U.S. Fourteenth Air Force bomb Hankow, China, a Japanese supply base.
1956 – Japan joins the United Nations.
1958 – Project SCORE, the world's first communications satellite, is launched.
1966 – Saturn's moon Epimetheus is discovered by Richard L. Walker.
1969 – Capital punishment in the United Kingdom: Home Secretary James Callaghan's motion to make permanent the Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act 1965, which had temporarily suspended capital punishment in England, Wales and Scotland for murder (but not for all crimes) for a period of five years.
1971 – Capitol Reef National Park is established in Utah.
1972 – Vietnam War: President Richard Nixon announces that the United States will engage North Vietnam in Operation Linebacker II, a series of Christmas bombings, after peace talks collapsed with North Vietnam on the 13th.
1973 – Soviet Soyuz Programme: Soyuz 13, crewed by cosmonauts Valentin Lebedev and Pyotr Klimuk, is launched from Baikonur in the Soviet Union.
1973 – The Islamic Development Bank is founded.
1978 – Dominica joins the United Nations.
1987 – Larry Wall releases the first version of the Perl programming language.
1989 – The European Economic Community and the Soviet Union sign an agreement on trade and commercial and economic cooperation.
1997 – HTML 4.0 is published by the World Wide Web Consortium.
1999 – NASA launches into orbit the Terra platform carrying five Earth Observation instruments, including ASTER, CERES, MISR, MODIS and MOPITT.
2002 – 2003 California recall: Then Governor of California Gray Davis announces that the state would face a record budget deficit of $35 billion, roughly double the figure reported during his reelection campaign one month earlier.
2005 РThe civil war in Chad begins when rebel groups, allegedly backed by neighbouring Sudan, launch an attack in Adr̩.
2006 – The first of a series of floods strikes Malaysia. The death toll of all flooding is at least 118, with over 400,000 people displaced.
2006 – United Arab Emirates holds its first-ever elections.
2010 – Anti-government protests begin in Tunisia, heralding the Arab Spring.





Today's Canadian Headline...

1988 FRENCH ONLY OUTSIDE
Quebec Quebec - Robert Bourassa 1933-1996 passes Bill 178 requiring French only on outside signs; permits bilingual signs inside; exercises Quebec's constitutional right, Clause 33 of the Charter of Rights, the 'notwithstanding clause', to override the Dec. 15 decision of the Supreme Court, striking down sections of Quebec's Bill 101 requiring that commercial signs be in French only; a decision that called these sections an unreasonable violation of freedom of expression.

1950

Pusan Korea - 2nd Battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, lands at Pusan; first Canadian troops in Korea.


In Other Events...


1997 Ottawa Ontario - Supreme Court of Canada hears arguments of amicus curiae André Joli-Coeur, since the Quebec government had refused to comment on the legality of a unilateral declaration of sovereignty.
1997 Montreal Quebec - Cardinal Jean-Claude Turcotte says in Le Devoir that it is up to the Quebec people, not the Supreme Court, to choose their own future; in response to protest from English Catholics, he later says his remarks lacked 'prudence'.
1997 Halifax, Nova Scotia - Nova Scotia government apologizes for 1992 Westray mine explosion that killed 26 miners.
1993 Canada - Grace Hartman dies at age 75; former national president of CUPE, first woman in Canada to lead a major national union.
1992 Halifax, Nova Scotia - John Crosbie cuts groundfish quotas up to 70%; says there are 'too many plants, too many boats, too many people chasing fish'; National Sea Products to close North Sydney and Lunenburg plants.
1992 Montreal Quebec - Air Canada President Hollis Harris says airline will post record loss of $300 m in 1992; will cut staff by 2,000.
1991 Quebec Quebec - Quebec completes major overhaul of Civil Code, governing all non-criminal law; after 35 years of reform.
1991 New York City - Céline Dion signs a $10 million contract with Sony Music.
1980 Montreal Quebec - Provigo acquires 87 grocery stores from Dominion Stores for $100 million.
1979 Ottawa Ontario - Liberal leader Pierre Trudeau decides to postpone his retirement; will lead he Party back to power in majority win over Conservatives.
1975 Ottawa Ontario - Ottawa abolishes Information Canada, Company of Young Canadians, and Opportunities For Youth program; due to cuts in government spending.
1974 Mississauga Ontario - Peter Demeter sentenced to life imprisonment for hiring unknown person to kill wife Christine and collect $1 million insurance money.
1971 Windsor Ontario - Thieves steal over $1 million from Windsor branch of the Royal Bank; 6 arrested several days later.
1969 Montreal Quebec - FLQ activist Pierre Vallières sentenced to 30 months in prison.
1968 Toronto Ontario - Henry Moore British sculptor donates 400 to 600 of his works to Art Gallery of Ontario.
1968 Cornwall Ontario - St. Regis Mohawks block Seaway International Bridge to protest customs duties on their US purchases; claim exemption under Jay's Treaty of 1794.
1968 Quebec Quebec - Quebec abolishes its Legislative Council.
1968 Quebec Quebec - Quebec government founds the multi-campus Université du Québec; Quebec's first public university and its fourth French language institution; includes six constituent universities, in Montreal, Trois-Rivières, Chicoutimi, Rimouski, Hull and Rouyn; two research institutes - the Institut national de la recherche scientifique and the Institut Armand-Frapper in Laval; as well as two superior schools, l'École nationale d'administration publique in Quebec City and l'École de technologie supérieure in Montreal; also Télé-université, which offers distance learning programs.
1954 Montreal Quebec - Canadiens star Maurice Richard gets his 400th career NHL goal in his 690th game.
1946 Bagotville Quebec - Daniel Johnson, père, elected MNA for Bagot; later Quebec Premier.
1946 Lethbridge Alberta - Four German prisoners of war hanged at the Lethbridge Provincial Jail for the murder of fellow prisoner Cpl. Karl Lehmann at the Medicine Hat POW camp in Sept. 1944.
1941 Kowloon, Hong Kong - Japanese troops cross the Lye Mun Passage after dark, in assault boats, landing craft and small boats towed by ferry steamers, to attack Hong Kong island; two platoons of the Winnipeg Grenadiers deployed to seize the hills known as Jardine's Lookout and Mount Butler where they engaged in intense fighting; heavily outnumbered, they are cut to pieces and both platoon commanders killed; the following day Brigadier Lawson is killed when the Japanese surround his West Brigade headquarters. All British and Canadian forces in Hong Kong will surrender on Christmas Day; Canadians lose 290 dead in battle, with 493 wounded; a total of 557 were killed or later died in Japanese prison camps.
1940 Britain - Munitions Minister Clarence Decatur 'CD' Howe 1886-1960 joins 152 other survivors of torpedoed liner 'Western Prince' in arriving safely in England.
1901 Indian Head, Saskatchewan - William Richard Motherwell 1860-1943 founds Territorial (later Saskatchewan) Grain Growers' Association at a meeting in the Indian Head Planing Mill; adopted resolutions dealing with such important matters as the appointment of a warehouse commissioner, loading platforms and car shortages; among those who attended that first convention were: Geo. Brown and G. Spring Rice, Regina; J. A. Brown, Spy Hill; Messrs. Barwell, Stevens, Invarson and McKinnon, Balcarres; H. Dorrell, Moose Jaw; George Lang, Indian Head; D. D. McFarlane, Welwyn; M. Snow, W. Gibson, J. Nix, Wolseley; R. J. Phin, Moosomin; Messrs. Wright and Fitzgerald, Grenfell; W. H. Ellis, J. B. Gordon and R. J. Campbell, Ellisboro; Robert Mills, W. P. Osler, I. Tinnel, Summerberry; Thomas Smith and E. Shaw, Kinlis; R. G. Ward, Firndale; W. M. Tate, Chickney; H. Oldors, Torlie; today a co-op of 75,000 farmers known as United Grain Growers.
1897 Ottawa Ontario - Cabinet creates Geographic Board of Canada by order-in-council.
1893 Toronto Ontario - Robert Machray 1831-1904 elected first Anglican Primate of all Canada; he is Archbishop of Rupertsland.
1892 Quebec Quebec - Louis Taillon replaces de Boucherville as Quebec Premier.
1889 Canso Nova Scotia - CPR telegraph links up with the Atlantic Cable at Canso.
1854 Quebec Quebec - Founding of the Quebec & Saguenay Railroad.
1813 Lewiston New York - John Murray leads 500 British and Canadians in capture of old Fort Niagara from the Americans in the War of 1812; Fort Niagara; captures 300 prisoners; Phineas Riall leads party of Indians in 2 week raid on Manchester, Fort Schlosser, Black Rock and Buffalo.
1792 Quebec Quebec - Jean-Antoine Panet 1751-1815 elected first President of the Lower Canada Assembly, which met in the Bishop's Palace at the top of Côte de la Montagne; already Speaker; first Quebec elections.
1603 Paris France - Pierre de Monts receives royal letters patent giving him trading rights in the territory north of peninsular Nova Scotia.

End of C/P.

 

[henric]

December 19th 2013 - This Date in History.


Events:C/P.


211 – Publius Septimius Geta, co-emperor of Rome, is lured to come without his bodyguards to meet his brother Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (Caracalla), to discuss a possible reconciliation. When he arrives the Praetorian Guard murders him and he dies in the arms of his mother Julia Domna.
324 – Licinius abdicates his position as Roman Emperor.
1154 – Henry II of England is crowned at Westminster Abbey.
1490 – Anne, Duchess of Brittany, is married to Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor by proxy.
1606 – The Susan Constant, the Godspeed, and the Discovery depart England carrying settlers who found, at Jamestown, Virginia, the first of the thirteen colonies that became the United States.
1776 – Thomas Paine publishes one of a series of pamphlets in The Pennsylvania Journal entitled "The American Crisis".
1777 – American Revolutionary War: George Washington's Continental Army goes into winter quarters at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.
1796 – French Revolutionary Wars: Two British frigates under Commodore Horatio Nelson and two Spanish frigates under Commodore Don Jacobo Stuart engage in battle off the coast of Murcia.
1828 – Nullification Crisis: Vice President of the United States John C. Calhoun pens the South Carolina Exposition and Protest, protesting the Tariff of 1828.
1900 – Hopetoun Blunder: The first Governor-General of Australia John Hope, 7th Earl of Hopetoun, appoints Sir William Lyne premier of the new state of New South Wales, but he is unable to persuade other colonial politicians to join his government and is forced to resign.
1907 – 239 coal miners die in a mine explosion in Jacobs Creek, Pennsylvania.
1912 – William Van Schaick, captain of the steamship General Slocum which caught fire and killed over 1,000 people, is pardoned by U.S. President William Howard Taft after three-and-a-half-years in Sing Sing prison.
1916 – World War I: Battle of Verdun – On the Western Front, the French Army successfully holds off the German Army and drives it back to its starting position.
1920 – King Constantine I is restored as King of the Hellenes after the death of his son Alexander of Greece and a plebiscite.
1924 – The last Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost is sold in London, England, United Kingdom.
1927 – Three Indian revolutionaries, Ram Prasad Bismil, Roshan Singh and Ashfaqulla Khan were executed by the British Empire.
1932 – BBC World Service begins broadcasting as the BBC Empire Service
1941 – World War II: Adolf Hitler becomes Supreme Commander-in-chief of the German Army.
1941 – World War II: Limpet mines placed by Italian divers sink the HMS Valiant and HMS Queen Elizabeth in Alexandria harbour.
1946 – Start of the First Indochina War.
1956 – Irish-born physician John Bodkin Adams is arrested in connection with the suspicious deaths of more than 160 patients. Eventually he is convicted only of minor charges.
1961 – India annexes Daman and Diu, part of Portuguese India.
1964 – The South Vietnamese military junta of Nguyen Khanh dissolve the High National Council and arrest some of the members.
1967 – Prime Minister of Australia Harold Holt is officially presumed dead.
1972 – Apollo program: The last manned lunar flight, Apollo 17, crewed by Eugene Cernan, Ron Evans and Harrison Schmitt, returns to Earth.
1975 – John Paul Stevens is appointed a justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.
1981 – Sixteen lives are lost when the Penlee lifeboat goes to the aid of the stricken coaster Union Star in heavy seas.
1983 – The original FIFA World Cup trophy, the Jules Rimet Trophy, is stolen from the headquarters of the Brazilian Football Confederation in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
1984 – The Sino-British Joint Declaration, stating that China would resume the exercise of sovereignty over Hong Kong and the United Kingdom would restore Hong Kong to China with effect from July 1, 1997 is signed in Beijing, China by Deng Xiaoping and Margaret Thatcher.
1986 – Mikhail Gorbachev, leader of the Soviet Union, releases Andrei Sakharov and his wife from exile in Gorky.
1995 – The United States Government restores federal recognition to the Nottawaseppi Huron Band of Potawatomi Indian tribe.
1997 – SilkAir Flight 185 crashes into the Musi River, near Palembang in Indonesia, killing 104.
1998 – President Bill Clinton is impeached by The United States House of Representatives, becoming the second President of the United States to be impeached.
2000 – The Leninist Guerrilla Units wing of the Communist Labour Party of Turkey/Leninist attack a Nationalist Movement Party office in Istanbul, Turkey, killing one person and injuring three.
2001 – A record high barometric pressure of 1085.6 hPa (32.06 inHg) is recorded at Tosontsengel, Khövsgöl, Mongolia.
2001 – Argentine economic crisis: December 2001 riots – Riots erupt in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
2012 – Park Geun-hye becomes the first female elected President of South Korea.






Today's Canadian Headline...


1917 FIRST TWO NHL GAMES PLAYED
Montreal Quebec/ Toronto Ontario - NHL starts inaugural season: original members of the league are the Montreal Canadiens, the Montreal Wanderers, Toronto Arenas, Ottawa Senators and Quebec Bulldogs. Quebec will not start playing with the league until 1919; Quebec's best player Joe Malone joins the Canadiens and on opening night scores five goals, including likely the first goal ever scored in the NHL, as Montreal beats Ottawa 9-4. Malone will go on to score 44 goals during the 24-game season. In the game in Toronto, Montreal Wanderers Dave Ritchie also scores what may have been the first NHL goal in a 10-9 victory over the Toronto Arenas; also first NHL game played on artificial ice; Harry Hyland of the Wanderers also scores five goals in this game; it will be the team's lone victory in the NHL: less than a month later, their arena burns down and they withdraw from the league. Sixteen of the players on that first day wind up in the Hockey Hall of Fame. The rules: each team can only dress a maximum of 12 players. There are no bluelines, no icing rules and no forward passing beyond the centre-ice red line. Minor penalties are three minutes long, and there is no limit on overtime.

1984
Edmonton Alberta - Wayne Gretzky scores his career 1,000th point on an assist in a 7-3 win over the Los Angeles Kings; at age 23 the youngest and the 18th NHLer; reaches the mark in just his 424th regular-season game, the fewest by any player in League history; Guy Lafleur held the old record, reaching the 1000 point mark in 720 games, 296 more than Gretzky. Gretzky will go on to break Gordie Howe's career record of 1,850 points in 1989.


In Other Events...

1997 Los Angeles, California - Canadian director James Cameron's epic 'Titanic' opens in movie theatres; will become the highest grossing film ever made; with theme song by Céline Dion.
1994 Hull Quebec - CRTC approves $3.1 billion takeover of Maclean Hunter Ltd. by Rogers Communications Inc.
1991 Toronto Ontario - Bob White, Canadian Auto Workers President, announces merger with the Canadian Association of Industrial, Mechanical and Allied Workers; 6,500 aerospace and mining workers in Manitoba and BC.
1988 Winnipeg Manitoba - Premier Gary Filmon withdraws his resolution to ratify Meech Lake from the Manitoba legislature; to protest Robert Bourassa's passage of Bill 178 requiring French only on outside signs, but permitting bilingual signs inside;.Ontario Premier David Peterson later says that Bourassa's decision to use the notwithstanding clause 'drove a stake through the heart of the Meech Lake Accord'.
1985 Toronto Ontario - Queen's Park brings in a law to ban extra billing by doctors under OHIP.
1984 Montreal Quebec - Scotty Bowman becomes NHL's all time winningest coach; today the most successful coach in any major league sport.
1977 Ottawa Ontario - Ottawa ends commercial relations with South Africa, to protest Apartheid racial policies.
1977 Europe - Ottawa resumes uranium shipments to European Economic Community; EEC agrees to follow 1974 Canadian nuclear safeguards.
1975 Toronto Ontario - Bertha Wilson appointed to Ontario Court of Appeal; first woman in Canada named to a provincial court of appeal; later the first woman appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada.
1973 Montreal Quebec - Montreal Symphony Orchestra able to keep operating with financial aid from citizens, businesses, and governments.
1969 Ottawa Ontario - Ottawa announces plans to cut Canadian Armed Forces reserves and close 41 armories.
1964 Halifax Nova Scotia - Royal Canadian Navy commissions HMCS Annapolis; 20th ship in destroyer escort program.
1961 Ottawa Ontario - John George Diefenbaker 1895-1979 speaks to Queen Elizabeth by new CANTAT cable carrying voice, picture, and teletype messages; first link in new round-the-world Commonwealth communications system.
1956 Bonn Germany - Canadian and West Germany sign agreement to train 360 West German aircrew in Canada.
1949 Washington DC - Canada, Britain and the US agree to standardize military arms and fighting methods.
1941 Hong Kong - Company Sergeant Major John Osborn of the Winnipeg Grenadiers, leading a bayonet charge against the Japanese on Mount Butler; throws himself on a Japanese grenade to save his comrades' lives; posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross.
1940 Atlantic - Royal Canadian Navy destroyer HMCS Saguenay torpedoed by a German U-boat.
1927 Montreal Quebec - Mgr. Raymond-Marie Rouleau named a Cardinal.
1927 England - Albert 'Frenchy' Belanger 1906-1969 beats England's Ernie Jarvis over 12 rounds to win the World Flyweight Championship by decision; 112 lb boxer from Toronto' Cabbagetown retired in 1930 after six years and 61 pro bouts which included 13 KO's, 24 decisions, 7 draws and 17 losses.
1917 Quebec City - Quebec Bulldogs play their first professional hockey game.
1904 Dawson City Yukon - Dawson City hockey team starts walking towards Seattle to catch a train to Ottawa to play in the Stanley Cup on Jan 13 1905.
1865 Ottawa Ontario - George Brown 1818-1880 resigns from cabinet after clashing with Conservative members.
1846 Toronto Ontario - The mayors of Toronto and Hamilton exchange greetings to open Canada's first telegraph service; the line runs between Toronto and Hamilton over lines of Toronto, Hamilton, Niagara, & St. Catharines Telegraph Company, founded Oct. 22.
1837 St-Eustache Quebec - John Colborne frees 64 of the 120 Patriote prisoners taken at St-Eustache, then returns to Montreal.
1813 Montreal Quebec - James McGill dies, leaving £10,000 to found a university; merchant and former North West Company partner.
1813 Lewiston New York - Lt.-Col. John Murray leads 550 British and Canadians in surprise attack, capturing Fort Niagara from the Americans; Riall goes on to destroy Lewiston and Buffalo to retaliate for burning of Newark (Niagara) and Queenston.

End of C/P.