This Date In History

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December 20th 2013 - This Date in History.


Events:C/P.


69 – Vespasian, formerly a general under Nero, enters Rome to claim the title of Emperor.
217 – The papacy of Zephyrinus ends. Callixtus I is elected as the sixteenth pope, but is opposed by the theologian Hippolytus who accuses him of laxity and of being a Modalist, one who denies any distinction between the three persons of the Trinity.
1192 – Richard I of England is captured and imprisoned by Leopold V of Austria on his way home to England after signing a treaty with Saladin ending the Third Crusade.
1522 – Siege of Rhodes: Suleiman the Magnificent accepts the surrender of the surviving Knights of Rhodes, who are allowed to evacuate. They eventually settle on Malta and become known as the Knights of Malta.
1606 – The Virginia Company loads three ships with settlers and sets sail to establish Jamestown, Virginia, the first permanent English settlement in the Americas.
1803 – The Louisiana Purchase is completed at a ceremony in New Orleans, Louisiana.
1808 – Peninsular War: The Siege of Zaragoza begins.
1860 – South Carolina becomes the first state to attempt to secede from the United States.
1915 – World War I: The last Australian troops are evacuated from Gallipoli.
1917 – Cheka, the first Soviet secret police force, is founded.
1924 – Adolf Hitler is released from Landsberg Prison
1941 – World War II: First battle of the American Volunteer Group, better known as the "Flying Tigers" in Kunming, China.
1942 – World War II: Japanese air forces bomb Calcutta, India.
1946 – The popular Christmas film It's a Wonderful Life is first released in New York, New York.
1951 – The EBR-1 in Arco, Idaho becomes the first nuclear power plant to generate electricity. The electricity powered four light bulbs.
1952 – A United States Air Force C-124 crashes and burns in Moses Lake, Washington killing 87.
1955 – Cardiff is proclaimed the capital city of Wales, United Kingdom.
1957 – Boeing's first jet-powered aircraft, the 707, makes its first flight.
1959 – Unknown attackers murder the Walker family in Osprey, Florida.
1960 – The National Front for the Liberation of Vietnam is formed.
1967 – A Pennsylvania Railroad Metroliner reaches over the limit of 155 mph on their New York Division, also present day Amtrak's Northeast Corridor.
1968 – The Zodiac Killer kills Betty Lou Jenson and David Faraday in Vallejo, California.
1971 – Zulfikar Ali Bhutto takes over as the fourth President of Pakistan.
1973 – The Prime Minister of Spain, Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco, is assassinated by a car bomb attack in Madrid.
1977 – Djibouti and Vietnam join the United Nations.
1984 – The Summit Tunnel fire is the largest underground fire in history, as a freight train carrying over 1 million liters of gasoline derails near the town of Todmorden, England in the Pennines.
1985 – Pope John Paul II announces the institution of World Youth Day.
1987 РIn the worst peacetime sea disaster, the passenger ferry Do̱a Paz sinks after colliding with the oil tanker Vector in the Tablas Strait in the Philippines, killing an estimated 4,000 people (1,749 official).
1988 – The United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances is signed in Vienna, Austria.
1989 – United States invasion of Panama: The United States sends troops into Panama to overthrow government of Manuel Noriega. This is also the first combat use of purpose-designed stealth aircraft.
1991 – A Missouri court sentences the Palestinian militant Zein Isa and his wife Maria to death for the honor killing of their daughter Palestina.
1991 – Paul Keating sworn in as the 24th Prime Minister of Australia after defeating Bob Hawke in a leadership ballot of the Australian Labor Party.
1995 – NATO begins peacekeeping in Bosnia.
1995 – American Airlines Flight 965, a Boeing 757, crashes into a mountain 50 km north of Cali, Colombia killing 159.
1996 – NeXT merges with Apple Computer, starting the path to Mac OS X.
1999 – Macau is handed over to China by Portugal.
2004 – A gang of thieves steal £26.5 million worth of currency from the Donegall Square West headquarters of Northern Bank in Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom, one of the largest bank robberies in British history.
2005 – Aleksandër Moisiu University was founded in Durrës, Albania.
2007 – Elizabeth II becomes the oldest monarch of the United Kingdom, surpassing Queen Victoria, who lived for 81 years, 7 months and 29 days.
2007 РThe Portrait of Suzanne Bloch (1904), by the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso, and O Lavrador de Caf̩ by Brazilian modernist painter Candido Portinari, are stolen from the Ṣo Paulo Museum of Art.






Today's Canadian Headline...


1991 OTTAWA SENATORS COME BACK
Miami Florida - NHL Governors grant permanent membership to the new Ottawa Senators and the Tampa Bay Lightning teams; the Ottawa group is led by real estate investor Bruce Firestone; the original Senators went out of business in 1932, due to the Depression.


In Other Events...

1995 Toronto Ontario - Burton Cummings records solo album 'Up Close and Alone' before a live audience at the Glenn Gould Studio in Toronto; released March 27th, 1996.
1991 Argentia Newfoundland - US Navy announces plans to close Argentia base in 1994; 500 personnel will leave; once the largest US base on foreign soil.
1990 Montreal Quebec - Jean Campeau and Michel Bélanger finish their hearings, after some 200 briefs and 600 submissions; special Joint Commission set up by Robert Bourassa and Jacques Parizeau to study Quebec's relationship with Canada; first Bélanger-Campeau report will state that the cost of Quebec independence will be minimal; recommends a referendum on sovereignty by October if Quebec did not receive a suitable offer from the rest of Canada.
1988 Quebec Quebec - Three Liberal anglophones resign from the Bourassa cabinet to protest 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'.
1988 Pittsburgh Pennsylvania - Penguin Mario Lemieux scores his 600th NHL goal.
1985 New York New York - Ottawa native Denis Potvin assists on Mike Bossy's goal for his 916th career point as his New York Islanders skate to a 2-2 tie with the New York Rangers; breaks Bobby Orr's NHL record for points by a defenseman.
1983 Montreal Quebec - Guy Lafleur the 10th NHLer to score 500th goals as his Montreal Canadiens beat the New York Rangers, 6-0; Steve Shutt also scores his 400th goal in the game.
1982 Montreal Quebec - Paul Rose freed from jail on parole; former FLQ terrorist sentenced to life imprisonment Mar. 31, 1971 for the murder of Quebec Labour Minister Pierre Laporte.
1982 Toronto Ontario - Wayne Gretzky wins Canada's Male Athlete of the Year Award; first person to win three consecutive awards.
1981 Winnipeg Manitoba - Doug Small of the Winnipeg Jets ties an NHL record by scoring at the 5 second mark, as his team beats the St. Louis Blues, 5-4.
1980 Ottawa Ontario - Gerald Keith Bouey 1920- Bank of Canada raises lending rate to record 17.36%; prompts emergency Commons debate.
1979 Quebec Quebec - René Lévesque 1922-1987 Quebec Premier announces upcoming referendum for a mandate to negotiate sovereignty-association.
1976 Ottawa Ontario - Hsio-Yen Shih 1933- appointed Director of the National Gallery of Canada.
1974 Ottawa Ontario - Parliament increases number of seats in the House of Commons from 264 to 282; effective at the next federal election.
1973 Ottawa Ontario - Maurice Jean Nadon 1920- succeeds W.L. Higgitt as Commissioner of the RCMP.
1973 Ottawa Ontario - Ottawa to set up Commission of Human Rights and Interests; to protect Canadians from discrimination.
1973 Montreal Quebec - Henri Richard of the Montreal Canadiens scores his 1,000th point with an assist in a 2-2 tie with the Buffalo Sabres.
1972 Ottawa Ontario - Ottawa bans whaling on Canadian east coast, because of declining numbers.
1965 Ottawa Ontario - Canada puts embargo on export of oil and arms from Canada to Rhodesia.
1945 Windsor Ontario - Ford Motor Company and UAW come to agreement to end Windsor Strike; 17,000 workers off the job since Sept. 12; on Dec 13 both parties agreed to binding arbitration under Justice Ivan Rand of the Supreme Court of Canada; Rand's arbitration award, rendered Jan. 29, 1946, denied the UAW's demand for a closed shop, but provided for a compulsory checkoff of union dues for all employees in the bargaining unit whether they were union members or not.
1944 Burma - RCAF Squadrons Nos. 435 and 436 fly their first operational mission, supplying Wingate's Fourteenth Army on its epic march south on the Burma Road.
1943 Ortona Italy - Maj-Gen Christopher Vokes and the 1st Canadian Division ordered to take the medieval seaport of Ortona, as part of the advance of General Montgomery's Eighth Army up the Italian Adriatic coast; Royal Edmonton Regiment and Seaforth Highlanders of Canada attack from the south, since the town flanked by sea cliffs on the north and east and by a deep ravine to the west; Canadians suffer heavy casualties before German forces withdraw on the night of Dec 27; 1,372 Canadians killed at Ortona - almost 25% of all Canadians killed in the Mediterranean theatre.
1929 Ottawa Ontario - Canada resumes diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union.
1919 Ontario - Government rescinds War-Time Restrictions Act; lifting ban on horse racing and grain liquor distilling.
1918 Ottawa Ontario - Cabinet authorizes use of the collective title 'Canadian National Railways'; Order in Council P.C. 3122.
1901 Ottawa Ontario - Minister of Finance W.S. Fielding assures Gugleilmo Marconi of a warm welcome in Nova Scotia to continue his experiments in wireless telegraphy, and offers Canadian government assistance; the Anglo-American Telegraph Company, with its underseas cable to Europe, had a monopoly in Newfoundland, and threatened to sue Marconi, who then set up shop in Cape Breton.
1893 Quebec Quebec - Official opening of the Chateau Frontenac hotel in Quebec City.
1891 London England - Montreal strongman Louis Cyr 1863-1912 withstands the pull of 4 horses.
1886 New Westminster, BC - All-Canadian telegraph system opens for regular traffic; first official inaugural message sent from New Westminster to Canso, Nova Scotia, in three minutes, and then relayed to England by submarine cable.
1883 Queenston Ontario - Opening of first cantilever bridge between the US and Canada over the Niagara River gorge. The 150 metre long structure is the first to be called a cantilever.
1864 Ottawa Ontario - Canadian militia sent near US border to guard against possible Fenian raids; Irish-American secret society dedicated to end of British rule in Ireland.
1817 Montreal Quebec - Bank of Montreal starts operations; incorporated three years later, on Dec. 20, 1820.
1792 Montreal Quebec - Opening of first Montreal Post Office, with regular twice-weekly mail service opened between Canada and the United States.

End of C/P.

 

[henric]

December 21st 2013 - This Date in History.


Events:C/P.

69 – The Roman Senate declares Vespasian as Roman emperor, the last in the Year of the Four Emperors.
640 – Muslim Arabs capture Babylon Fortress in the Nile Delta (near Cairo) after a seven-month siege.
1140 – Conrad III of Germany besieged Weinsberg.
1361 РThe Battle of Linuesa is fought in the context of the Spanish Reconquista between the forces of the Emirate of Granada and the combined army of the Kingdom of Castile and of Ja̩n resulting in a Castilian victory.
1598 – Battle of Curalaba: The revolting Mapuche, led by cacique Pelentaru, inflict a major defeat on Spanish troops in southern Chile.
1620 – Plymouth Colony: William Bradford and the Mayflower Pilgrims land on what is now known as Plymouth Rock in Plymouth, Massachusetts.
1826 – American settlers in Nacogdoches, Mexican Texas, declare their independence, starting the Fredonian Rebellion.
1832 – Egyptian–Ottoman War: Egyptian forces decisively defeat Ottoman troops at the Battle of Konya.
1844 – The Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers commences business at its cooperative in Rochdale, England, United Kingdom starting the Cooperative movement.
1861 – Medal of Honor: Public Resolution 82, containing a provision for a Navy Medal of Valor, is signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln.
1872 – Challenger expedition: HMS Challenger, commanded by Captain George Nares, sails from Portsmouth, England.
1879 РWorld premi̬re of Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen, Denmark.
1883 – The Royal Canadian Dragoons and The Royal Canadian Regiment, the first Permanent Force cavalry and infantry regiments of the Canadian Army, are formed: .
1907 – The Chilean Army commits a massacre of at least 2,000 striking saltpeter miners in Iquique, Chile.
1910 – An underground explosion at the Hulton Bank Colliery No. 3 Pit in Over Hulton, Westhoughton, England, kills 344 miners.
1913 – Arthur Wynne's "word-cross", the first crossword puzzle, is published in the New York World.
1919 – American anarchist Emma Goldman is deported to Russia.
1923 – United Kingdom and Nepal formally signed an agreement of friendship, called the Nepal–Britain Treaty of 1923, which superseded the Sugauli Treaty signed in 1816.
1937 – Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the world's first full-length animated feature, premieres at the Carthay Circle Theatre.
1941 – World War II: A formal treaty of alliance between Thailand and Japan is signed in the presence of the Emerald Buddha in Wat Phra Kaew, Thailand.
1946 – An 8.1 Mw earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Nankaidō, Japan, kill over 1,300 people and destroy over 38,000 homes.
1951 – Libya became an independent country.
1962 – Rondane National Park is established as Norway's first national park.
1967 – Louis Washkansky, the first man to undergo a heart transplant, dies in Cape Town, South Africa, having lived for 18 days after the transplant.
1968 – Apollo program: Apollo 8 is launched from the Kennedy Space Center, placing its crew on a lunar trajectory for the first visit to another celestial body by humans.
1969 – The United Nations adopts the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.
1973 – The Geneva Conference on the Arab–Israeli conflict opens.
1979 – Lancaster House Agreement: An independence agreement for Rhodesia is signed in London, England, United Kingdom by Lord Peter Carrington, Sir Ian Gilmour, Robert Mugabe, Joshua Nkomo, Bishop Abel Muzorewa and S.C. Mundawarara.
1988 – A bomb explodes on board Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, killing 270.
1992 – A Dutch DC-10, flight Martinair MP 495, crashes at Faro Airport, killing 56.
1994 РMexican volcano Popocat̩petl, dormant for 47 years, erupts gases and ash.
1995 – The city of Bethlehem passes from Israeli to Palestinian control.
1999 – The Spanish Civil Guard intercepts a van loaded with 950 kg of explosives that ETA intended to use to blow up Torre Picasso in Madrid, Spain.
2004 – Iraq War: A suicide bomber killed 22 at the forward operating base next to the main U.S. military airfield at Mosul, Iraq, the single deadliest suicide attack on American soldiers.






Today's Canadian Headline...


1894 MACKENZIE BOWELL BECOMES PM
Ottawa Ontario - Mackenzie Bowell 1823-1917 becomes Prime Minister after death of John Thompson. A Senator, Bowell is Canada's 5th Prime Minister; he serves to April 27, 1896.

1943
Ortona Italy - 2nd Canadian Infantry Brigade attacks the town of Ortona, starting a week-long battle; a savage house to house fight against heavily barricaded 'mouseholed' German infantry. Here's a picture of Canadian troops moving up a street against sniper fire; 1,372 Canadian soldiers will die during the week of fighting, one quarter of all casualties in the Mediterranean theatre.


In Other Events...


1992 St. John's, Newfoundland - John Crosbie says European Community will stop overfishing on high seas outside Canada's 200 mile limit; quotas ignored since 1986 on Grand Banks.
1992 Ottawa Ontario - Barbara McDougall says Canada will recognize the new Czech and Slovak republics; Czechoslovakia federation to be dissolved Jan 01 after 74 years.
1990 Ottawa Ontario - Frank Iacobucci appointed to Supreme Court replacing Bertha Wilson; Chief Justice of Federal Court since 1988; Vancouver native ex-Dean of Law at University of Toronto.
1990 Ottawa Ontario - Jean Chrétien becomes Leader of the Opposition.
1990 Montreal Quebec - Montreal Machine football team play first CFL game.
1987 Montreal Quebec - Jacques Parizeau accepts presidency of Parti québécois on the understanding that his first role will be to promote the sovereignty of Quebec.
1983 Moscow Russia - Ottawa files formal claims for $2.1 million in damages from USSR on behalf of Canadian victims of Korean Air Lines flight 007, downed by a Soviet military missile.
1966 Ottawa Ontario - Parliament passes national Medicare Act; effective July 1, 1968.
1965 New York City - Canadian-born film producer Harry Saltzman and his partner Cubby Broccoli premiere their new James Bond movie, Thunderball, starring Sean Connery, at the Premier Showcase and Paramount theaters, where it plays around the clock; the picture will gross $141.2 million worldwide.
1964 Ottawa Ontario - Paul Theodore Hellyer 1923- Defence Minister announces $1.5 billion defence purchase plan; for 200 ground-support aircraft, 4 destroyers, 155 mm howitzers.
1963 Ottawa Ontario - Canadian Weather Service gets first automatic picture transmission via satellite.
1959 Moncton, New Brunswick - First broadcast of Radio Canada's CBAFT-Moncton TV station.
1942 Ottawa Ontario - Wartime Prices and Trade Board brings in butter rationing in Canada.
1933 St John's Newfoundland - Dominion of Newfoundland reverts to being a crown colony after bankruptcy.
1914 New York City - Cobourg, Ontario, actress Marie Dressler stars in Tilley's Punctured Romance with Charlie Chaplin, Mabel Normand and Mack Swain; the world's first six-reel, feature-length silent film comedy; directed by fellow Canadian Mack Sennett, it is based on her vaudeville act.
1910 Fort McPherson, NWT - Francis J. Fitzgerald and his Mounted Police patrol leave Fort McPherson on their 800 km mid-winter patrol to Dawson, in the Yukon Territory, to deliver mail and to confirm the presence of the Canadian police; will meet unusually heavy snow cover and - 46 C temperatures; Jan 18 turn back for Fort McPherson, but lose their way and run out of food after eating their dogs; by mid February the Lost Patrol members perish to a man; bodies recovered and buried in Fort McPherson March 28, 1911.
1907 Montreal Quebec - First issue of 'L'Action Sociale' newspaper.
1902 Sydney, Nova Scotia - First Wireless Telegraph Message exchanged between Canada and England; via Newfoundland.
1891 Springfield Massachusetts - James Naismith, from Almonte, Ontario, organizes the first game of basketball at Springfield YMCA Training College; played by 18 students who used two peach baskets and a soccer ball.
1891 Quebec Quebec - Charles Boucher de Boucherville sworn in as Conservative Premier of Quebec; replacing Honoré Mercier, who was removed from office on corruption charges; Boucherville dissolves the Assembly and calls an election on the 23rd.
1884 Khartoum Sudan - General Herbert Kitchener leads British troops into Khartoum; find General Charles Gordon's garrison was wiped out three days earlier; the expedition was transported up the Nile by Canadian voyageurs and Caughnawaga Mohawks recruited by Col. Garnet Wolseley, who had previously employed them during the Red River Campaign in 1870.
1883 Toronto Ontario - George T. Denison organizes first Canadian infantry and cavalry schools.
1859 Ottawa Ontario - John Rose, Commissioner of Public Works breaks sod to start construction of the Parliament Buildings.
1838 Montreal Quebec - Execution of rebels Joseph Cardinal and Joseph Duquet.
1837 Quebec Quebec - Governor Gosford delegates to certain officials the power to swear oaths of allegiance in Lower Canada; those who refuse are arrested under martial law.
1825 Montreal Quebec - Opening of the Theatre Royal in Montreal.
1708 St. John's, Newfoundland - French troops based in Placentia destroyed an English settlement at St. John's, bringing the eastern shore under French control.

End of C/P.

 

[henric]

December 22nd 2013 - This Date in History.


Events:C/P.

69 – Emperor Vitellius is captured and murdered at the Gemonian stairs in Rome.
880 – Luoyang, eastern capital of the Tang Dynasty, is captured by rebel leader Huang Chao during the reign of Emperor Xizong.
1135 – Stephen of Blois becomes King of England
1769 – Sino-Burmese War (1765–1769) ends with an uneasy truce.
1790 – The Turkish fortress of Izmail is stormed and captured by Alexander Suvorov and his Russian armies.
1807 – The Embargo Act, forbidding trade with all foreign countries, is passed by the U.S. Congress, at the urging of President Thomas Jefferson.
1808 – Ludwig van Beethoven conducts and performs in concert at the Theater an der Wien, Vienna, with the premiere of his Fifth Symphony, Sixth Symphony, Fourth Piano Concerto (performed by Beethoven himself) and Choral Fantasy (with Beethoven at the piano).
1851 – India's first freight train is operated in Roorkee, India.
1864 – Savannah, Georgia falls to General William Tecumseh Sherman, concluding his "March to the Sea".
1885 – Itō Hirobumi, a samurai, became the first Prime Minister of Japan.
1890 – Cornwallis Valley Railway begins operation between Kentville and Kingsport, Nova Scotia.
1891 – Asteroid 323 Brucia becomes the first asteroid discovered using photography.
1894 – The Dreyfus affair begins in France, when Alfred Dreyfus is wrongly convicted of treason.
1920 – The GOELRO economic development plan is adopted by the 8th Congress of Soviets of the Russian SFSR.
1937 – The Lincoln Tunnel opens to traffic in New York, New York.
1939 – Indian Muslims observe a "Day of Deliverance" to celebrate the resignations of members of the Indian National Congress over their not having been consulted over the decision to enter World War II with the United Kingdom.
1940 – World War II: Himarë is captured by the Greek army.
1942 – World War II: Adolf Hitler signs the order to develop the V-2 rocket as a weapon.
1944 – World War II: Battle of the Bulge – German troops demand the surrender of United States troops at Bastogne, Belgium, prompting the famous one word reply by General Anthony McAuliffe: "Nuts!"
1944 – World War II: The Vietnam People's Army is formed to resist Japanese occupation of Indochina, now Vietnam.
1947 – The Constituent Assembly of Italy approves the Constitution of Italy.
1951 – The Selangor Labour Party is founded in Selangor, Malaya.
1956 – Colo, the first gorilla to be bred in captivity, is born at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium in Ohio.
1963 – The cruise ship Lakonia burns 180 miles (290 km) north of Madeira, Portugal with the loss of 128 lives.
1964 – The first test flight of the SR-71 (Blackbird) took place at Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, California.
1965 – In the United Kingdom, a 70 mph speed limit is applied to all rural roads including motorways for the first time. Previously, there had been no speed limit.
1974 РGrande Comore, Anjouan and Moh̩li vote to become the independent nation of Comoros. Mayotte remains under French administration.
1974 – The house of former British Prime Minister Edward Heath is attacked by members of the Provisional IRA.
1978 – The pivotal Third Plenum of the 11th National Congress of the Communist Party of China is held in Beijing, with Deng Xiaoping reversing Mao-era policies to pursue a program for Chinese economic reform.
1984 – Bernhard Goetz shoots four African American would-be muggers on an express train in Manhattan section of New York, New York.
1987 – In Zimbabwe, the political parties ZANU and ZAPU reach an agreement that ends the violence in the Matabeleland region known as the Gukurahundi.
1988 – Chico Mendes, a Brazilian rubber tapper, unionist and environmental activist, is assassinated.
1989 – Communist President of Romania Nicolae Ceaușescu is overthrown by Ion Iliescu after days of bloody confrontations. The deposed dictator and his wife flee Bucharest with a helicopter as protesters erupt in cheers.
1989 – Berlin's Brandenburg Gate re-opens after nearly 30 years, effectively ending the division of East and West Germany.
1990 – Final independence of Marshall Islands and Federated States of Micronesia after termination of trusteeship.
1990 – The Parliament of Croatia adopts the current Constitution of Croatia.
1991 – Armed opposition groups launch a military coup against President of Georgia Zviad Gamsakhurdia.
1992 – The Archives of Terror are discovered.
1997 – Acteal massacre: Attendees at a prayer meeting of Roman Catholic activists for indigenous causes in the small village of Acteal in the Mexican state of Chiapas are massacred by paramilitary forces.
1997 – Hussein Farrah Aidid relinquishes the disputed title of President of Somalia by signing the Cairo Declaration, in Cairo, Egypt. It is the first major step towards reconciliation in Somalia since 1991.
1998 – Hurricane Quinto strikes the Cayman Islands, knocking out power to the entire island for 2 days. Looting is rampant, but contained after 12 hours.
1999 – Korean Air Cargo Flight 8509, a Boeing 747-200F crashes shortly after take-off from London Stansted Airport due to pilot error. All 4 crew members are killed.
2001 – Burhanuddin Rabbani, political leader of the Northern Alliance, hands over power in Afghanistan to the interim government headed by President Hamid Karzai.
2001 – Richard Reid attempts to destroy a passenger airliner by igniting explosives hidden in his shoes aboard American Airlines Flight 63.
2008 – An ash dike ruptured at a solid waste containment area in Roane County, Tennessee, releasing 1.1 billion US gallons (4,200,000 m3) of coal fly ash slurry.
2010 – The repeal of the Don't ask, don't tell policy, the 17-year-old policy banning homosexuals serving openly in the United States military, is signed into law by President Barack Obama.






Today's Canadian Headline...


1809 US NON-INTERCOURSE ACT HURTS CANADA
Washington DC - US passes Non-Intercourse Act; opens trade with all nations except Britain and France; to retaliate against Napoleon's Decrees and British blockade; causes commercial depression in Canada.

1856

Fort Erie Ontario - Buffalo & Lake Huron Railroad opens from Fort Erie to Stratford.


In Other Events...


1995 Quebec - Lucien Bouchard 1938- announces that he is a candidate for the leadership of the Parti québécois.
1992 Ottawa Ontario - Perrin Beatty licenses 4 companies to provide digital Personal Communication Services (PSA) phone services; Telezone, Rogers Cantel, Mobility Canada (Bell) and Canada Popfone (MH).
1987 Moscow Russia - Canada beats Finland 4-1 to win first-ever gold medal at the annual Izvestia hockey tournament.
1986 Montreal Quebec - Quebec Court of Appeal declares that Article 58 or Bill 101 making French the sole language authorized on commercial signs is unconstitutional.
1977 Ottawa Ontario - Ottawa starts building first six new naval frigates; part of $1.5 billion naval program.
1976 Ottawa Ontario - Olive Diefenbaker dies; wife of John.
1974 Boston Massachusetts - Bruins Phil Esposito the 6th NHLer to score 500 goals.
1973 Toronto Ontario - Pierre Berton quoted in Canadian Magazine as saying, 'A Canadian is somebody who knows how to make love in a canoe.'
1972 New York City - Canadian folk singer Joni Mitchell receives a gold record for her album, For the Roses; includes song, 'You Turn Me on, IÕm a Radio'.
1969 Montreal Quebec - Supreme Court rules 1968 Montreal lottery illegal; Quebec sets up provincial lottery corporation; first draw to take place March 14, 1970.
1969 Ottawa Ontario - John Lennon and Yoko Ono spend an hour with Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and meet the Minister of Health, John Munro to discuss drug abuse.
1969 Toronto Ontario - Anglican Church of Canada ordains first woman deacon.
1969 Montreal Quebec - FLQ terrorists explode bomb in a post office truck.
1967 Ottawa Ontario - Justice Minister Pierre Trudeau tells the Commons that "There is no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation."
1965 Ottawa Ontario - Report of Organizing Committee recommends setting up Company of Young Canadians as a Crown Corporation.
1964 Quebec - Opening of the Eastern Townships Autoroute.
1963 Ottawa Ontario - Reginald Binette kills four parishioners of Christ the King Roman Catholic Church in Ottawa in robbery attempt; sentenced to life imprisonment May 1, 1964.
1952 Ottawa Ontario - Government announces plans to build the National Library of Canada.
1950 Korea - HMCS Athabaskan relieved for repairs and general maintenance; had performed carrier screen duty, escorted shipping, carried out blockade patrols and provided anti-aircraft protection and general support for the forces evacuating Inchon.
1943 Ortona Italy - Canadian First Division surrounds Ortona, cuts off German retreat; starts week-long battle with savage house to house fighting.
1941 Hong Kong - Japanese capture Sugar Loaf Hill at 12 noon, but Canadians from C Company of the Royal Rifles recapture the hill; later taken out to Stanley Fort down the peninsula, for a rest; will hold out until their ammunition, food and water are exhausted.
1924 Toronto Ontario - Babe Dye of NHL's Toronto St Patricks scores 5 goals as his team beats the Boston Bruins 10-2.
1922 Montreal Quebec - Official opening of the Mount Royal Hotel, with 1.046 rooms.
1897 Ottawa Ontario - Bering Sea Claims Commission recommends US pay Canadian sealers $463,454; to compensate for seizure of vessels.
1877 Montreal Quebec - Laval University opens a branch campus in Montreal, later the U of M.
1869 Newfoundland - Newfoundlanders vote against joining Confederation.
1859 Winnipeg Manitoba - The Nor'Wester the first newspaper published on the Canadian Prairies.
1837 Toronto Ontario - George Arthur 1784-1854 appointed Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada; from March 23, 1838 to Feb. 9, 1841. last.
1821 Pictou, Nova Scotia - Thomas McCulloch publishes the first of his Letters of Mephibosheth Stepsure in serial form in the Acadian Recorder, chiding his fellow Pictonians to improve their farming practices and style of life; until Mar 1823; reprinted in 1862 and then in 1960 as The Stepsure Letters.
1807 Washington DC - US passes Embargo Act to stop all trade with foreign ports; to retaliate against Napoleon's Decrees and British blockade.

End of C/P.

 

[henric]

December 23rd 2013 - This Date in History.


Events:C/P.


484 – Huneric dies and is succeeded by his nephew Gunthamund, who becomes king of the Vandals. During his reign the Catholics are free from persecutions.
558 – Chlothar I is crowned.
583 – Maya queen Yohl Ik'nal is crowned ruler of Palenque.
679 – King Dagobert II is murdered in a hunting accident.
962 – Arab–Byzantine Wars: Under the future Emperor Nicephorus Phocas, Byzantine troops stormed the city of Aleppo.
1572 – Theologian Johann Sylvan executed in Heidelberg for his heretical Antitrinitarian beliefs.
1688 – As part of the Glorious Revolution, King James II of England flees England to Paris, France after being deposed in favor of his nephew, William of Orange and his daughter Mary.
1783 – George Washington resigns as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army at the Maryland State House in Annapolis, Maryland.
1793 РThe Battle of Savenay, decisive defeat of the royalist counter-revolutionaries in War in the Vend̩e during the French Revolution.
1823 – A Visit from St. Nicholas, also known as The Night Before Christmas, is published anonymously.
1893 – The opera Hansel and Gretel by Engelbert Humperdinck is first performed.
1913 – The Federal Reserve Act is signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson, creating the Federal Reserve System.
1914 – World War I: Australian and New Zealand troops arrive in Cairo, Egypt.
1916 – World War I: Battle of Magdhaba – Allied forces defeat Turkish forces in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula.
1919 – Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919 becomes law in the United Kingdom.
1921 – Visva-Bharati University is inaugurated.
1936 – Colombia becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty.
1936 – First flight of the Vickers Wellington bomber.
1938 – Discovery of the first modern coelacanth in South Africa.
1940 – World War II: Greek submarine Papanikolis (Y-2) sinks the Italian motor ship Antonietta.
1941 – World War II: After 15 days of fighting, the Imperial Japanese Army occupies Wake Island.
1947 – The transistor is first demonstrated at Bell Laboratories.
1948 – Seven Japanese convicted of war crimes by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East are executed at Sugamo Prison in Tokyo, Japan.
1954 – First successful kidney transplant is performed by J. Hartwell Harrison and Joseph Murray.
1958 – Dedication of Tokyo Tower, the world's highest self-supporting iron tower.
1968 – The 82 sailors from the USS Pueblo are released after eleven months of internment in North Korea.
1970 – The North Tower of the World Trade Center in Manhattan, New York, New York is topped out at 1,368 feet (417 m), making it the tallest building in the world.
1970 – The Democratic Republic of the Congo officially becomes a single-party state.
1972 – A 6.5 magnitude earthquake strikes the Nicaraguan capital of Managua killing more than 10,000.
1972 – The 16 survivors of the Andes flight disaster are rescued after 73 days, having survived by cannibalism.
1979 – Soviet war in Afghanistan: Soviet Union forces occupy Kabul, the Afghan capital.
1982 – The United States Environmental Protection Agency announces it has identified dangerous levels of dioxin in the soil of Times Beach, Missouri.
1986 – Voyager, piloted by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, lands at Edwards Air Force Base in California becoming the first aircraft to fly non-stop around the world without aerial or ground refueling.
1990 – History of Slovenia: In a referendum, 88.5% of Slovenia's overall electorate vote for independence from Yugoslavia.
2002 – A MQ-1 Predator is shot down by an Iraqi MiG-25.
2003 – PetroChina Chuandongbei natural gas field explosion, Guoqiao, Kai County, Chongqing, China, killing at least 234.
2007 – An agreement is made for the Kingdom of Nepal to be abolished and the country to become a federal republic with the Prime Minister becoming head of state.







Today's Canadian Headline...


1900 CANADIAN SENDS WORLD'S FIRST VOICE COM BY RADIO
Brant Rock, Massachusetts - Reginald Aubrey Fessenden 1866-1932, a Canadian wireless expert working for the US Weather Service, broadcasts the world's first voice communications by AM (amplitude modulation) radio wave for a distance of 1.6 km between two 13 metre towers; asks his assistant, 'Is it snowing where you are, Mr. Thiessen?'

1983
Ottawa Ontario - Jeanne Sauvé 1922-1993 appointed Canada's first woman Governor General. Sauvé was born in Saskatchewan, brought up in Ottawa, was first elected to the Commons in 1972, was the first female French Canadian cabinet minister, and the first female Speaker of the House of Commons. After treatment for cancer, she was sworn in on May 14, 1984; she left Rideau Hall early in 1990 and died in January, 1993.


In Other Events...

1992 Ottawa Ontario - CRTC approves $40.5 m sale of Maclean Hunter Hamilton TV station CHCH; to Shaw Cablesystems and WIC Western International Communications; also $308 m sale of Cablecasting Ltd. to Shaw Cablesystems of Edmonton; from controlling shareholder David Graham..
1991 Toronto Ontario - Grafton-Fraser to close 221 Jack Fraser, George Richards, Grafton & Co, Madison, Bimini stores; 1700 full and part time jobs.
1991 Quebec - Gallup Poll says support for sovereignty-association in Quebec has dropped to 47% from 61% in May 1990.
1977 Ottawa Ontario - Royal Canadian Mint postpones bringing in new, smaller pennies, after protests from owners of coin-operated vending machines.
1971 Ottawa Ontario - Parliament passes Capital Gains Tax, effective Jan. 1, 1972, 'Valuation Day'.
1970 New York City - Canadian folksinger Joni Mitchell awarded her first gold record for her third album, Ladies of the Canyon; contained hit single 'Big Yellow Taxi.'
1969 Quebec Quebec - Quebec government creates la Société d'exploitation des Loteries - Loto-Québec - to manage lotteries and off-track betting in the province.
1966 Ottawa Ontario - Royal Canadian Mint announces that dimes, quarters and 50-cent pieces will be struck from nickel instead of the more costly silver.
1966 Borden Saskatchewan - Saskatchewan Premier W. Ross Thatcher 1917- announces that farm house where John Diefenbaker spent childhood will be moved; near Borden, Saskatchewan.
1964 Montreal Quebec - Anglican, Baptist, Greek Orthodox, Lutheran, Presbyterian and Roman Catholic churches agree to share pavilion at Expo '67.
1963 Ottawa Ontario - Founding of National Centre for the Performing Arts in Ottawa; annual National Festival of the Arts starts in 1967.
1945 Toronto Ontario - Archbishop James Charles McGuigan 1894-1974 nominated Canada's first non-French cardinal by Pius XII.
1944 Halifax, Nova Scotia - German submarine U-806 torpedoes Royal Canadian Navy minesweeper HMCS Clayoquot by the Halifax lightship; sinks on the 24th.
1900 Halifax Nova Scotia - William Dillon Otter 1843-1929 leads first Canadian contingent arrives back in Halifax from South Africa; completed Boer War service.
1869 Winnipeg Manitoba - Louis Riel 1844-1885 replaces John Bruce as President of the National Committee of Metis.
1855 St-Thomas Quebec - Opening of Grand Trunk Railroad from Lévis to St. Thomas.
1771 Montreal Quebec - Marie Marguerite d'Youville dies; founder of the Grey Nuns, she was declared venerable in 1890 and the first steps in her beatification were taken in 1955.
1615 Oro Ontario - Samuel de Champlain c1570-1635 leads defeated Huron war party back to Cahiagué after campaign against Iroquois across Lake Ontario.

End of C/P.

 

[henric]

December 24th 2013 - This Date in History.


Events:C/P.

563 – The Byzantine church Hagia Sophia in Constantinople is dedicated for the second time after being destroyed by earthquakes.
640 – Pope John IV is elected.
759 – Tang Dynasty poet Du Fu departs for Chengdu, where he is hosted by fellow poet Pei Di.
1144 – The capital of the crusader County of Edessa falls to Imad ad-Din Zengi, the atabeg of Mosul and Aleppo.
1294 – Pope Boniface VIII is elected Pope, replacing St. Celestine V, who had resigned.
1777 – Kiritimati, also called Christmas Island, is discovered by James Cook.
1814 – The Treaty of Ghent is signed ending the War of 1812.
1818 – The first performance of "Silent Night" takes place in the church of St. Nikolaus in Oberndorf, Austria.
1826 – The Eggnog Riot at the United States Military Academy begins that night, wrapping up the following morning.
1851 – Library of Congress burns.
1865 – The Ku Klux Klan is formed.
1871 – Aida opens in Cairo, Egypt.
1906 – Radio: Reginald Fessenden transmits the first radio broadcast; consisting of a poetry reading, a violin solo, and a speech.
1911 – Lackawanna Cut-Off railway line opens in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
1913 – The Italian Hall disaster ("1913 Massacre") in Calumet, Michigan, results in the death of 73 Christmas party goers held by striking mine workers, including 59 children.
1914 – World War I: The "Christmas truce" begins.
1924 – Albania becomes a republic.
1929 – Assassination attempt on Argentine President Hipólito Yrigoyen.
1939 – World War II: Pope Pius XII makes a Christmas Eve appeal for peace.
1941 – World War II: Kuching is conquered by Japanese forces.
1942 РWorld War II: French monarchist, Fernand Bonnier de La Chapelle, assassinates Vichy French Admiral Fran̤ois Darlan in Algiers, Algeria.
1943 – World War II: U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower becomes the Supreme Allied Commander.
1951 – Libya becomes independent from Italy. Idris I is proclaimed King of Libya.
1953 – Tangiwai disaster: In New Zealand's North Island, at Tangiwai, a railway bridge is damaged by a lahar and collapses beneath a passenger train, killing 151 people.
1955 – NORAD Tracks Santa for the first time in what will become an annual Christmas Eve tradition.
1964 – Vietnam War: Viet Cong operatives bomb the Brinks Hotel in Saigon, South Vietnam to demonstrate they can strike an American installation in the heavily guarded capital.
1966 – A Canadair CL-44 chartered by the United States military crashes into a small village in South Vietnam, killing 129.
1968 – Apollo program: The crew of Apollo 8 enters into orbit around the Moon, becoming the first humans to do so. They performed 10 lunar orbits and broadcast live TV pictures that became the famous Christmas Eve Broadcast, one of the most watched programs in history.
1969 – Charles Manson is allowed to defend himself at the Tate-LaBianca murder trial.
1972 – Japan Airlines Flight 472, operated Douglas DC-8-53 landed at Juhu Aerodrome instead of Santacruz Airport in Bombay, India.
1973 – District of Columbia Home Rule Act is passed, allowing residents of Washington, D.C. to elect their own local government.
1974 – Cyclone Tracy devastates Darwin, Australia.
1979 – The first European Ariane rocket is launched.
1980 – Witnesses report the first of several sightings of unexplained lights near RAF Woodbridge, in Rendlesham Forest, Suffolk, England, United Kingdom, an incident called "Britain's Roswell".
1994 – Air France Flight 8969 is hijacked on the ground, over the course of 3 days 3 passengers are killed, as are all 4 terrorists.
1997 – The Sid El-Antri massacre (or Sidi Lamri) in Algeria kills 50-100 people.
2000 – The Texas Seven hold up a sports store in Irving, Texas. Police officer Aubrey Hawkins is murdered during the robbery.
2003 – The Spanish police thwart an attempt by ETA to detonate 50 kg of explosives at 3:55 p.m. inside Madrid's busy Chamartín Station.
2005 – Chad–Sudan relations: Chad declares a state of war against Sudan following a December 18 attack on Adré, which left about 100 people dead.
2008 – Lord's Resistance Army, a Ugandan rebel group, begins a series of attacks on Democratic Republic of the Congo, massacring more than 400.







Today's Canadian Headline...


1781 CANADA'S FIRST CHRISTMAS TREE
Sorel Quebec - Friedrich, Baron von Riedesel 1738-1800 erects Canada's first Christmas tree for the garrison in Fort Sorel.

1906

Brant Rock, Massachusetts -
Quebec physicist Reginald Aubrey Fessenden 1866-1932 makes the world's first public radio broadcast and the first broadcast of music from his station near Boston on Christmas Eve; featured a female vocalist and Fessenden himself playing 'O Holy Night' on his violin to sailors on ships in the Atlantic and Caribbean; also sings carols, reads the Bible. In 1900 Fessenden had sent the world's first voice communications by radio wave for a distance of 1.6 km between two 13 metre towers. While working as a wireless expert for the US Weather Service, he developed the superheterodyne principle, the basis for all modern broadcasting, as well as the AM (amplitude modulation) broadcasting principle.


In Other Events...

1997 Montreal Quebec - Pierre Péladeau dies; founder and Chairman of Québécor.
1991 Port Colborne, Ontario - Mary Kinnear dies at age 93; appointed to the Senate 1967; one of Canada's first female senators.
1989 Ottawa Ontario - House of Commons approves North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) after bitter two-week debate and closure.
1974 Hollywood California - Joni Mitchell goes Christmas caroling with her neighbours James Taylor, Carly Simon and Linda Ronstadt.
1973 Ottawa Ontario - Founding of the Coal Association of Canada, a national body representing the coal industry.
1950 Toronto Ontario - Pianist Glenn Gould makes his CBC broadcast debut on 'Sunday Morning Recital'; comes to prefer the microphone to the concert stage, and in 1964 gives up performing live.
1948 Ottawa Ontario - Canada formally recognizes the state of Israel.
1942 Ottawa Ontario - National Defence says there are now 681,615 volunteers and conscripts in the Canadian forces.
1924 Montreal Quebec - Illumination of the cross on Mount Royal; Sieur de Maisonneuve had placed a cross on the mountain on this day in 1642.
1894 Montreal Quebec - Founding of the Canadian Artistic Society, funded by a lottery, with the goal of opening a national conservatory of music; started operations in 1896, giving free courses and paying teachers $25 a month; forced to close in 1901 when the federal government banned lotteries.
1888 Copper Cliff Ontario - First smelter blown in at Copper Cliff, near Sudbury.
1879 Winnipeg Manitoba - Temperature in Winnipeg drops to record -44.3 C (-47.8 degrees F).
1875 Sherbrooke Quebec - Sherbrooke gets city charter.
1866 London England - British North America delegates adopt the London Resolutions; choose name Dominion of Canada for new country; agreements made on the Intercolonial Railway, Imperial aid and religious school rights.
1814 Ghent Belgium - Treaty of Ghent ends War of 1812; restores 1783 boundaries; the Americans had declared war on June 18th, 1812, accusing British vessels of violating US neutrality and territorial waters during the first Napoleonic war. There has been peace ever since between Canada and the US.
1783 Montreal Quebec - Loyalist troops stationed in Lower Canada are disbanded.
1642 Montreal Quebec - Sieur de Maisonneuve climbs Mount Royal and plants a cross on the summit.
1584 Red Bay, Labrador - Basque whaler Joanes de Echaniz dictates his last will and testament at Carol's Cove, near Red Bay; possibly the oldest surviving will in Canadian history.

End of C/P.

 

[henric]

December 25th 2013 - This Date in History.


Events:C/P.


333 – Roman Emperor Constantine the Great elevates his youngest son Constans to the rank of Caesar.
336 – First documentary sign of Christmas celebration in ancient Rome
350 – Vetranio meets Constantius II at Naissus (Serbia) and is forced to abdicate his title (Caesar). Constantius allows him to live as a private citizen on a state pension.
496 – Clovis I, king of the Franks, is baptized into the Catholic faith at Reims, by Saint Remigius.
597 – Augustine of Canterbury and his fellow-labourers baptise in Kent more than 10,000 Anglo-Saxons.
800 – Coronation of Charlemagne as Holy Roman Emperor, in Rome.
1000 – The foundation of the Kingdom of Hungary: Hungary is established as a Christian kingdom by Stephen I of Hungary.
1025 – Coronation of Mieszko II Lambert as King of Poland
1066 – William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy is crowned king of England, at Westminster Abbey, London.
1100 – Baldwin of Boulogne is crowned the first King of Jerusalem in the Church of the Nativity.
1130 – Count Roger II of Sicily is crowned the first King of Sicily.
1261 – John IV Laskaris of the restored Eastern Roman Empire is deposed and blinded by orders of his co-ruler Michael VIII Palaiologos.
1553 – Battle of Tucapel: Mapuche rebels under Lautaro defeat the Spanish conquistadors and executes the governor of Chile, Pedro de Valdivia.
1643 – Christmas Island found and named by Captain William Mynors of the East India Company vessel, the Royal Mary.
1776 – George Washington and the Continental Army cross the Delaware River at night to attack Hessian forces serving Great Britain at Trenton, New Jersey, the next day.
1809 – Dr. Ephraim McDowell performs the first ovariotomy, removing a 22 pound tumor.
1814 – Rev. Samuel Marsden holds the first Christian service on land in New Zealand at Rangihoua Bay.
1815 – The Handel and Haydn Society, oldest continuously performing arts organization in the United States, gives its first performance.
1826 – The Eggnog Riot at the United States Military Academy concludes after beginning the previous evening.
1837 – Second Seminole War: American general Zachary Taylor leads 1100 troops against the Seminoles at the Battle of Lake Okeechobee.
1868 – U.S. President Andrew Johnson grants unconditional pardon to all Civil War Confederate soldiers.
1926 – Emperor Taishō of Japan dies. His son, Prince Hirohito, succeeds him as Emperor Shōwa.
1927 – The Vietnamese Nationalist Party is founded.
1932 – A magnitude 7.6 earthquake in Gansu, China kills 275 people.
1941 – Admiral Chester W. Nimitz arrives at Pearl Harbor to assume command of the U.S. Pacific Fleet
1941 – World War II: Battle of Hong Kong ends, beginning the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong.
1941 – Admiral Émile Muselier seizes the archipelago of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, which become the first part of France to be liberated by the Free French Forces.
1946 – The first in Europe artificial, self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction is initiated within Soviet nuclear reactor F-1.
1947 – The Constitution of the Republic of China goes into effect.
1950 – The Stone of Scone, traditional coronation stone of British monarchs, is taken from Westminster Abbey by Scottish nationalist students. It later turns up in Scotland on April 11, 1951.
1963 – Turkish Cypriot Bayrak Radio begins transmitting in Cyprus after Turkish Cypriots are forcibly excluded from Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation.
1965 – The Yemeni Nasserist Unionist People's Organisation is founded in Ta'izz
1968 – Apollo program: Apollo 8 performs the very first successful Trans-Earth injection (TEI) maneuver, sending the crew and spacecraft on a trajectory back to Earth from Lunar orbit.
1968 – 42 Dalits are burned alive in Kilavenmani village, Tamil Nadu, India, a retaliation for a campaign for higher wages by Dalit laborers.
1974 – Cyclone Tracy devastates Darwin, Northern Territory Australia.
1974 – Marshall Fields drives a vehicle through the gates of the White House, resulting in a four-hour standoff.
1977 – Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin meets in Egypt with its president Anwar Sadat.
1989 – Deposed President of Romania Nicolae Ceaușescu and his wife, First-Deputy Prime-Minister Elena Ceaușescu are condemned to death and executed after a summary trial.
1991 – Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as General Secretary of the Soviet Union (the union itself is dissolved the next day). Ukraine's referendum is finalized and Ukraine officially leaves the Soviet Union.
2000 – Russian President Vladimir Putin signs a bill into law that officially establishes a new National Anthem of Russia, with music adopted from the anthem of the Soviet Union that was composed by Alexander Vasilyevich Alexandrov.
2003 – The ill-fated Beagle 2 probe, released from the Mars Express Spacecraft on December 19, disappears shortly before its scheduled landing.
2004 – Cassini orbiter releases Huygens probe which successfully landed on Saturn's moon Titan on January 14, 2005.
2009 – Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab unsuccessfully attempts a terrorist attack against the US while on board a flight to Detroit Metro Airport Northwest Airlines Flight 253






Today's Canadian Headline...


1855 BRITISH RIFLEMEN INVENT GAME OF ICE HOCKEY?
Kingston Ontario - Soldiers of the Royal Canadian Rifles at the Tête du Pont barracks clear ice from Lake Ontario and use field hockey sticks and lacrosse balls to play first game of ice hockey; there are also Montreal claims of March 1875 and 1880, and there is proof that the Irish game of hurley, a form of field hockey, was played on ice at King's College, Windsor, Nova Scotia, in the early 1800s. Old Dutch paintings also show youths hitting balls with sticks on frozen canals.

1535

Quebec Quebec - Jacques Cartier and his crew celebrate Canada's first recorded Christmas at Stadacona.


In Other Events...

1971 Ottawa Ontario - Justin Pierre Trudeau born; second child born to a Prime Minister while in office; Mary Macdonald the first, in 1869.
1960 Montreal Quebec - Opening of the Boulevard Métropolitain for traffic; Montreal's cross-town artery.
1944 Ravenna Italy - Canadian Army captures Adriatic coast city of Ravenna.
1944 Sackville, New Brunswick - CBC tests its new International Service with a Christmas broadcast to Canadian troops in Europe in both English and French; only transmitter tests, but a small regular audience of Canadian troops and Europeans develops; opens full service Feb. 25, 1945.
1941 Hong Kong - Japan announces the surrender of the British-Canadian garrison by radio broadcast; 290 Canadian dead, 493 wounded; Canadian survivors spend rest of war in Japanese POW camps; in all, 264 men never return from the camps.
1940 Aldershot England - General Andrew McNaughton 1887-1966 organizes First Canadian Corps with two divisions.
1924 Montreal Quebec - New cross on Mount Royal first illuminated.
1919 Montreal Quebec - Beginning of fund raising campaign to establish l'Université de Montréal, as a separate institution from Laval.
1892 Ottawa Ontario - John Sparrow David Thompson 1844-1894 sworn in at Rideau Hall as leader of new Conservative Ministry.
1848 Edmonton Alberta - Paul Kane 1810-1871 attends Christmas dinner at HBC Chief Factor Rowand's Fort Edmonton establishment [see below].
1785 Sorel Quebec - Christ Church opens at Sorel; oldest Anglican church in Quebec.
1667 Kahnawake Quebec - Kateri Tekakwitha has her first communion at the Iroquois church.
1635 Quebec Quebec - Samuel de Champlain c1567-1635 dies at Quebec on Christmas Day, age 68, after stroke paralyzed him in October; born at Brouage, a small seaport town in the old province of Saintonge, southeast of Rochefort, in about 1567; his remains buried under Champlain Chapel near Notre-Dame-de-Québec.
1633 Trois-Rivières, Quebec - Jacques Hertel becomes the first settler at Three Rivers.
1620 Copenhagen Denmark - Jens Eriksen Munk 1519-1628 manages to return to Copenhagen with only two surviving crew members after horrifying winter ordeal in Hudson Bay; most of his men died of trichinosis or Vitamin A poisoning from eating polar bear liver.

End of C/P.

 

[henric]

December 26th 2013 - This Date in History.


Events:C/P.


1135 – Coronation of King Stephen of England.
1481 – Battle of Westbroek: Holland defeats troops of Utrecht.
1776 – American Revolutionary War: In the Battle of Trenton, the Continental Army attacks and successfully defeats a garrison of Hessian mercenaries.
1790 – Louis XVI of France gives his public assent to Civil Constitution of the Clergy during the French Revolution.
1793 – Second Battle of Wissembourg: France defeat Austria.
1793 – The wedding of Prince Friedrich Ludwig of Prussia and Frederica of Mecklenburg-Strelitz takes place.
1799 – Four thousand people attend George Washington's funeral where Henry Lee III declares him as "first in war, first in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen."
1805 – Austria and France sign the Treaty of Pressburg.
1806 – Battles of Pultusk and Golymin: Russian forces hold French forces under Napoleon.
1811 – A theater fire in Richmond, Virginia kills the Governor of Virginia George William Smith and the president of the First National Bank of Virginia Abraham B. Venable.
1825 – Advocates of liberalism in Russia rise up against Czar Nicholas I and are put down in the Decembrist revolt in Saint Petersburg.
1846 – Trapped in snow in the Sierra Nevadas and without food, members of the Donner Party resort to cannibalism.
1860 – The first ever inter-club association football match takes place between Hallam F.C. and Sheffield F.C. at the Sandygate Road ground in Sheffield, England, United Kingdom.
1861 – American Civil War: The Trent Affair: Confederate diplomatic envoys James M. Mason and John Slidell are freed by the United States government, thus heading off a possible war between the United States and United Kingdom.
1862 – American Civil War: The Battle of Chickasaw Bayou begins.
1862 – Four nuns serving as volunteer nurses on board USS Red Rover are the first female nurses on a U.S. Navy hospital ship.
1862 – The largest mass-hanging in U.S. history took place in Mankato, Minnesota, 38 Native Americans die.
1870 РThe 12.8-km long Fr̩jus Rail Tunnel through the Alps is completed.
1871 – Gilbert and Sullivan collaborate for the first time, on their lost opera, Thespis. It does modestly well, but the two would not collaborate again for four years.
1883 – The Harbour Grace Affray between Irish Catholics and Protestant Orangemen causes five deaths in Newfoundland.
1898 – Marie and Pierre Curie announce the isolation of radium.
1900 – A relief crew arrives at the lighthouse on the Flannan Isles of Scotland, UK, only to find the previous crew has disappeared without a trace.
1919 – Babe Ruth of the Boston Red Sox is sold to the New York Yankees by owner Harry Frazee.
1925 – Turkey adopts the Gregorian calendar.
1941 – U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs a bill establishing the fourth Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day in the United States.
1943 – World War II: German warship Scharnhorst is sunk off of Norway's North Cape after a battle against major Royal Navy forces.
1944 – World War II: George S. Patton's Third Army breaks the encirclement of surrounded U.S. forces at Bastogne, Belgium.
1948 – Cardinal József Mindszenty is arrested in Hungary and accused of treason and conspiracy.
1963 – The Beatles' "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and "I Saw Her Standing There" are released in the United States, marking the beginning of Beatlemania on an international level.
1966 – The first Kwanzaa is celebrated by Maulana Karenga, the chair of Black Studies at California State University, Long Beach.
1972 – Vietnam War: As part of Operation Linebacker II, 120 American B-52 Stratofortress bombers attacked Hanoi, including 78 launched from Andersen Air Force Base in Guam, the largest single combat launch in Strategic Air Command history.
1976 – The Communist Party of Nepal (Marxist–Leninist) is founded.
1982 – Time's Man of the Year is for the first time a non-human, the personal computer.
1991 – The Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union meets and formally dissolves the Soviet Union.
1994 – Four Armed Islamic Group hijackers seize control of Air France Flight 8969. When the plane lands at Marseille, a French Gendarmerie assault team boards the aircraft and kills the hijackers.
1996 РSix-year-old beauty queen JonBen̩t Ramsey is found beaten and strangled in the basement of her family's home in Boulder, Colorado.
1996 – Start of the largest strike in South Korean history.
1997 РThe Soufri̬re Hills volcano on the island of Montserrat explodes, creating a small tsunami offshore.
1998 – Iraq announces its intention to fire upon U.S. and British warplanes that patrol the northern and southern no-fly zones.
1999 – The storm Lothar sweeps across Central Europe, killing 137 and causing US$1.3 billion in damage.
2003 РA magnitude 6.6 earthquake devastates southeast Iranian city of Bam, killing tens of thousands and destroying the citadel of Arg-̩ Bam.
2004 – A 9.3 magnitude earthquake creates a tsunami causing devastation in Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, the Maldives and many other areas around the rim of the Indian Ocean, killing over 230,000.
2004 – Orange Revolution: The final run-off election in Ukraine is held under heavy international scrutiny.
2006 – An oil pipeline in Lagos, Nigeria explodes, killing at least 260.






Today's Canadian Headline...


1791 PITT SPLITS CANADA IN TWO
London England - British PM William Pitt passes the Constitutional Act, dividing Quebec along the Ottawa River, into Upper and Lower Canada, each with a Lieutenant-Governor and a Legislature; Lower Canada keeps French civil law. The so-called 'Canada Act' gives colonies first powers to pass duties for revenue, a form of responsible government, but the governors and council retain the right to control revenue from the sale of Crown Lands, letting them bypass the Assembly.

1942

Halifax, Nova Scotia - Canadian-escorted convoy ONS-154 loses 14 ships to German U-boats in mid-Atlantic; gets 32 to Britain by Dec. 30.

1943
London England - General A.G.L. 'Andy' McNaughton 1887-1966 retires as commander of First Canadian Army; will become Minister of National Defence replacing J. L. Ralston.


In Other Events...


1991 Toronto Ontario - Northwest Airlines buys 20 Dash 8 Series 100 aircraft from de Haviland for $190 million; division of Boeing Canada.
1990 Montreal Quebec - Doug Harvey 1924-1990 dies; born Dec 19, 1924. Harvey played defence for the Montreal Canadiens; he won the Norris Trophy as best NHL defenceman seven times.
1976 St. John's Newfoundland - Nursing home fire kills 21 elderly residents.
1971 Cuba - Air Canada jet on flight from Thunder Bay to Toronto hijacked to Cuba.
1970 Ste-Foy, Quebec - Quebec suburb of Ste-Foy incorporated.
1960 Toronto Ontario - National Youth Orchestra Association meets for first time; concludes with New Year's Eve concert at Massey Hall.
1934 Lévis Quebec - Joseph Bernier 1852-1934 dies, born on this day at L'Islet, Quebec on Jan 01, 1852. Captain of the government steamship Arctic, Bernier led expeditions into Canada's Arctic between 1904 and 1911; July 1909 unveiled a plaque on Melville Island which officially claimed the Arctic Islands for Canada.
1908 Sydney Australia - Jack Johnson knocks out Canada's Tommy Burns to win the world heavyweight boxing crown; police stopped the fight in the 14th round; Johnson the first black heavyweight champion; Burns, a Hanover, Ontario, native who weighed only 175 pounds, won the title with a 20-round decision over Marvin Hart at Los Angeles in 1906.
1901 Sydney, Nova Scotia - Guglielmo Marconi arrives in North Sydney from Newfoundland two weeks after he had received the first transatlantic radio signal at Signal Hill in St. John's Newfoundland; the Anglo-American Telegraph Company, owner of the undersea cable and holder of a monopoly of telegraphy in the province, notified him that it would take legal action unless he immediately ceased his wireless experiments and removed his equipment from Newfoundland. He confers with Nova Scotia Premier George Murray, William Smith of the Canadian Post Office, Mayor Mckenzie of North Sydney, and the Honourable J.N. Armstrong, a prominent local politician and member of the Nova Scotia cabinet. They urge him to set up shop in Cape Breton, and send him on to Ottawa two days later.
1887 Winnipeg: Manitoba - David Harrison sworn in as Premier of Manitoba; will resign on Jan. 19, 1888 after support evaporates.
1852 Liverpool England - New Brunswick-built ship Marco Polo arrives back from Melbourne, Australia in 140 days, a trip that usually took 240 days; declared the fastest ship in the world; 1883 wrecked when grounded in a gale off Cavendish, PEI.
1848 Longueuil Quebec - First train runs between Longueuil and St-Hyacinthe.
1823 St. John's Newfoundland - Founding of Chamber of Commerce of St. John's.
1727 France - Louis-François Duplessis de Mornay appointed Bishop of Quebec on death of Saint-Vallier; he never came to Canada.

End of C/P.

 

[henric]

December 27th 2013 - This Date in History.


Events:C/P.


537 – The Hagia Sophia is completed.
1512 – The Spanish Crown issues the Laws of Burgos, governing the conduct of settlers with regard to native Indians in the New World.
1655 – Second Northern War/the Deluge: Monks at the Jasna Góra Monastery in Częstochowa are successful in fending off a month-long siege.
1657 – The Flushing Remonstrance is signed.
1703 – Portugal and England sign the Methuen Treaty which gives preference to Portuguese imported wines into England.
1814 – War of 1812: The American schooner USS Carolina is destroyed. It was the last of Commodore Daniel Patterson's makeshift fleet that fought a series of delaying actions that contributed to Andrew Jackson's victory at the Battle of New Orleans.
1831 – Charles Darwin embarks on his journey aboard the HMS Beagle, during which he will begin to formulate the theory of evolution.
1836 – The worst ever avalanche in England occurs at Lewes, Sussex, killing 8 people.
1845 – Ether anesthetic is used for childbirth for the first time by Dr. Crawford Long in Jefferson, Georgia.
1845 – Journalist John L. O'Sullivan, writing in his newspaper the New York Morning News, argues that the United States had the right to claim the entire Oregon Country "by the right of our manifest destiny".
1911 – "Jana Gana Mana", the national anthem of India, is first sung in the Calcutta Session of the Indian National Congress.
1918 – The Great Poland Uprising against the Germans begins.
1922 – Japanese aircraft carrier Hōshō becomes the first purpose built aircraft carrier to be commissioned in the world.
1923 – Daisuke Namba, a Japanese student, tries to assassinate the Prince Regent Hirohito.
1927 – Show Boat, considered to be the first true American musical play, opens at the Ziegfeld Theatre on Broadway.
1929 – Soviet General Secretary Joseph Stalin orders the "liquidation of the kulaks as a class" in an effort to spread socialism to the countryside.
1932 – Radio City Music Hall, "Showplace of the Nation", opens in New York, New York.
1939 – Erzincan, Turkey is hit by an earthquake, killing 30,000.
1939 – Winter War: Finland holds off a Soviet attack in the Battle of Kelja.
1942 – The Union of Pioneers of Yugoslavia is founded.
1945 – The World Bank and International Monetary Fund are created with the signing of an agreement by 29 nations.
1949 – Indonesian National Revolution: The Netherlands officially recognizes Indonesian independence. End of the Dutch East Indies.
1966 – The Cave of Swallows, the largest known cave shaft in the world, is discovered in Aquismón, San Luis Potosí, Mexico.
1968 – Apollo program: Apollo 8 splashes down in the Pacific Ocean, ending the first orbital manned mission to the Moon.
1978 – Spain becomes a democracy after 40 years of dictatorship.
1979 – The Soviet Union invades the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan.
1983 – Pope John Paul II visits Memhet Ali Agca in Rebibbia's prison and personally forgives him for the 1981 attack on him in St. Peter's Square.
1985 – Palestinian guerrillas kill eighteen people inside Rome, Italy and Vienna, Austria airports.
1989 – The Romanian Revolution concludes, as the last minor street confrontations and stray shootings abruptly end in the country's capital, Bucharest.
1996 – Taliban forces retake the strategic Bagram Airfield which solidifies their buffer zone around Kabul, Afghanistan.
1997 – Protestant paramilitary leader Billy Wright is assassinated in Northern Ireland, United Kingdom.
2001 – China is granted permanent normal trade relations with the United States.
2002 – Two truck bombs kill 72 and wound 200 at the pro-Moscow headquarters of the Chechen government in Grozny, Chechnya, Russia.
2004 – Radiation from an explosion on the magnetar SGR 1806-20 reaches Earth. It is the brightest extrasolar event known to have been witnessed on the planet.
2007 – Former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto is assassinated in a shooting incident.
2007 – Riots erupt in Mombasa, Kenya, after Mwai Kibaki is declared the winner of the presidential election, triggering a political, economic, and humanitarian crisis.
2008 – Israel launches 3-week operation on Gaza - Operation Cast Lead.
2009 – Iranian election protests: On the Day of Ashura in Tehran, Iran, government security forces fire upon demonstrators.






Today's Canadian Headline...


1869 LOUIS RIEL PRESIDENT
Winnipeg Manitoba - Louis Riel 1844-1885 elected President of the Provisional Government of Rupert's Land and the North West; with powers to negotiate with Canadian Commissioner Donald A. Smith 1820-1914 who had just arrived at Fort Garry to explain the sale of the HBC territory to Canada.

1972
Ottawa Ontario - Lester B. 'Mike' Pearson 1897-1972 dies at age 75; born Apr 23, 1897. Diplomat and Liberal Prime Minister 1963-68, Pearson won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in the Suez Crisis of 1956, setting up a UN peacekeeping force to help the British and French extract themselves from Egypt. His government is credited with bringing in medicare and the Canada Pension Plan. He is buried in Wakefield, Quebec.


In Other Events...


1990 Ottawa Ontario - Barbara McDougall announces a five-year $332 million agreement to give Quebec control of cultural integration of immigrants to the province.
1990 Peterborough Ontario - Harold Town 1924-1990 dies of cancer at age 66; abstract artist, printmaker, studied at Central Technical School and the Ontario College of Art; worked as an illustrator for Maclean's and Mayfair; a founding member of the Painters Eleven (1953-1960).
1986 Saskatoon Saskatchewan - The Northern Pikes sign record deal, valued at over $350,000, to produce two albums on the Virgin records label, with options for possibly four more; members of the Saskatoon band are lead guitarist Brian Potvin, drummer Don Schmidt, vocalist Merl Bryck and leader-bass guitarist Jay Semko.
1978 Montreal Quebec - Montréal-Matin newspaper closes.
1981 Edmonton Alberta - Oiler centre Wayne Gretzky scores his 100th point of the season to set record for fastest 100 points in NHL history; playing his 38th game of the season, in a 10-3 win over the Los Angeles Kings; breaks Phil Esposito's mark of 51 games set in 1970-71; will later bettered that mark in 1983-84 by scoring 100 points in 34 games.
1964 North Vancouver, BC - Chris Gage 1927-1964 commits suicide; jazz pianist born in Regina in 1927; declined offers to tour with Louis Armstrong, Peggy Lee and Gerry Mulligan.
1945 Ottawa Ontario - Lawyer Andrew Brewin persuades Minister of Justice to halt the deportation of 900 Japanese Canadians; gets matter referred to Supreme Court of Canada; acting on behalf of Japanese Canadians.
1943 Ortona Italy - Defending German paratroopers start to abandon town of Ortona after a week of fierce fighting with Maj-Gen Christopher Vokes' 1st Canadian Division; infantry from the Loyal Edmonton Regiment and the Seaforth Highlanders of Canada suffered heavy casualties; 1,372 Canadians killed in taking Ortona and environs.
1943 London England - General A.G.L. McNaughton 1887-1966 resigns his command of the First Canadian Army in Europe; out of favour with Minister of National Defence, J.L. Ralston over his opposition to fragmentation of the Canadian Army Overseas.
1942 Almonte Ontario - Troop train with 13 coaches plows into the rear of CPR train 550 west of Ottawa, killing 36 and injuring 155 persons; caused by lack of automatic signals.
1926 Narrow Lake, Ontario - H.A. 'Doc' Oaks first flies supplies in the winter for Bathurst Mines in Hudson; pioneers methods of engine heating and maintenance for bush flying.
1924 Montreal Quebec - Canadiens visit the Montreal Maroons at the Forum for the first time and skate to a 1-1 tie.
1923 Washington DC - Canada signs reciprocal copyright agreement with US.
1916 Oka Quebec - Trappist monastery at Oka destroyed by fire.
1901 Sydney, Nova Scotia - Guglielmo Marconi sails along the coast from Glace Bay to Louisbourg on the Dominion Coal Company tug Douglas H. Thomas, inspecting sites for a wireless station; leaves for Ottawa the following day to confer with government officials.
1897 Montreal Quebec - Montreal Victorias beat Ottawa Capitals 15-2 to win the Stanley Cup.
1897 Hull Quebec - Quebec, Montreal, Ottawa and Occidental Railway opens between Montreal and Hull via Lachute.
1869 Ottawa Ontario - First issue of the Ottawa 'Free Press' published.
1867 Toronto Ontario - New Ontario legislature holds first meeting; J.S. Macdonald first Premier.
1867 Quebec Quebec - New Quebec legislature holds first meeting; P-J-O Chauveau first Premier; J-G Blanchet first Speaker.
1827 Halifax, Nova Scotia - Joseph Howe acquires the Novascotian newspaper from George Young, agrees to pay £1,050 in installments of £210 a year for five years; founded in 1824.
1789 Queenston Ontario - Stage coach service opens on the Niagara portage road between Queenston and Fort Erie; first stage coach service in Ontario.
1773 Montreal Quebec - Old Château de Vaudreuil becomes le Collège de Montréal.
1610 Paris France - Hélène Boulle de Champlain, age 12, signs marriage contract with 40 year old Samuel de Champlain; daughter of a wealthy secretary to Louis XIII, and a Protestant; the wedding takes place Dec. 30; she brings him a useful dowry of 4,500 livres.

End of C/P.

 

[henric]

December 28th 2013 - This Date in History.


Events:C/P.

457 – Majorian is crowned emperor of the Western Roman Empire and recognized by Pope Leo I.
484 – Alaric II succeeds his father Euric and becomes king of the Visigoths. He establishes his capital at Aire-sur-l'Adour (Southern Gaul).
893 – An earthquake destroys the city of Dvin, Armenia.
1065 – Westminster Abbey is consecrated.
1308 – The reign of Emperor Hanazono, Emperor of Japan, begins.
1612 – Galileo Galilei becomes the first astronomer to observe the planet Neptune, although he mistakenly catalogued it as a fixed star.
1768 – King Taksin's coronation achieved through conquest as a king of Thailand and established Thonburi as a capital.
1795 – Construction of Yonge Street, formerly recognized as the longest street in the world, begins in York, Upper Canada (present-day Toronto, Ontario, Canada).
1824 – The Bathurst War comes to an end with the surrender of the Wiradjuri.
1832 – John C. Calhoun becomes the first Vice President of the United States to resign.
1835 – Osceola leads his Seminole warriors in Florida into the Second Seminole War against the United States Army.
1836 – South Australia and Adelaide are founded.
1836 – Spain recognizes the independence of Mexico.
1846 – Iowa is admitted as the 29th U.S. state.
1867 – United States claims Midway Atoll, the first territory annexed outside Continental limits.
1879 – Tay Bridge disaster: The central part of the Tay Rail Bridge in Dundee, Scotland, United Kingdom collapses as a train passes over it, killing 75.
1885 – Indian National Congress a political party of India is founded in Bombay, British India.
1895 – The Lumière brothers perform for their first paying audience at the Grand Cafe in Boulevard des Capucines, marking the debut of the cinema.
1895 – Wilhelm Röntgen publishes a paper detailing his discovery of a new type of radiation, which later will be known as x-rays.
1902 – The Syracuse Athletic Club defeated the New York Philadelphians, 5-0, in the first indoor professional football game, which was held at Madison Square Garden.
1908 – A magnitude 7.2 earthquake rocks Messina, Sicily, Italy killing over 75,000.
1912 – The first municipally owned streetcars take to the streets in San Francisco, California.
1918 – Constance Markievicz while detained in Holloway prison, became the first woman to be elected MP to the British House of Commons.
1935 – Pravda publishes a letter by Pavel Postyshev, who revives New Year tree tradition in the Soviet Union.
1941 – World War II: Operation Anthropoid, the plot to assassinate high-ranking Nazi officer Reinhard Heydrich, commences.
1943 – World War II: After eight days of brutal house-to-house fighting, the Battle of Ortona concludes with the victory of the 1st Canadian Infantry Division over the German 1st Parachute Division and the capture of the Italian town of Ortona.
1944 – Maurice Richard becomes the first player to score 8 points in one game of NHL ice hockey.
1948 – The DC-3 airliner NC16002 disappears 50 miles south of Miami, Florida.
1956 – Chin Peng, David Marshall and Tunku Abdul Rahman meet in Baling, Malaya to try and resolve the Malayan Emergency situation.
1958 – "Greatest Game Ever Played" – Baltimore Colts defeat the New York Giants in the first ever National Football League sudden death overtime game at New York's Yankee Stadium.
1972 – Kim Il-sung, already Prime Minister of North Korea and First Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea, becomes the first President of North Korea.
1973 – The Endangered Species Act is passed in the United States.
1978 – With the crew investigating a problem with the landing gear, United Airlines Flight 173 runs out of fuel and crashes in Portland, Oregon, killing 10. As a result, United Airlines instituted the industry's first crew resource management program.
1989 – A magnitude 5.6 earthquake hits Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia, killing 13 people.
2000 – U.S. retail giant Montgomery Ward announces it is going out of business after 128 years.
2008 – War in Somalia: The militaries of Somalia's Transitional Federal Government and Ethiopian troops capture Mogadishu unopposed.
2009 – 43 people die in a suicide bombing in Karachi, Pakistan, where Shia Muslims are observing the Day of Ashura.
2010 – Arab Spring: Popular protests begin in Algeria against the government.
2011 – Uludere airstrike: Turkish warplanes bomb 34 Kurds of Turkish nationality in the district of Uludere.






Today's Canadian Headline...


1795 SIMCOE TO BUILD YONGE STREET
Toronto Ontario - Upper Canada Governor John Graves Simcoe orders start to building of 80 km highway from town of York to Lake Simcoe; to be used as a portage road for the North West Company, and as a military route to protect Upper Lake Huron; completed in April, 1796, and named for Sir George Yonge, then British Secretary of State for War.

1970
Montreal Quebec - Paul Rose 1938-, his brother Jacques Rose 1942-, and Francis Simard 1943- captured at 4;30 am in tunnel under farmhouse near Montreal; suspected FLQ terrorists, kidnappers and murderers of Quebec Labour Minister Pierre Laporte.


In Other Events...

1996 Quebec Quebec - Newspaper Le Soleil de Québec celebrates its 100th anniversary.
1980 Ottawa Ontario - Pierre Trudeau gives year-end interview on CTV; says if Canada breaks up as a result of his constitutional proposals, it's 'not worth holding together.'
1977 Colorado Springs, Colorado - Pierre Trudeau tours headquarters of NORAD, the North American Air Defence Command.
1967 Toronto Ontario - Reopening of 116-year old St. Lawrence Hall, renovated as a Centennial project.
1964 Boston Massachusetts - Canadian composers Marion Grudeff and Ray Jessel premiere their musical 'Baker Street' in the US after revisions and two week run in Toronto; opens on Broadway Feb. 1965.
1944 Montreal Quebec - Canadiens' right winger Maurice Richard the first player in NHL history to score eight points in one game, with 5 goals and 3 assists in a 9-1 win over the Detroit Red Wings; Leafs' Darryl Sittler breaks the record with 10 points on Feb. 7, 1976.
1943 Ortona Italy - Canadians enter the medieval town of Ortona after a week of battling enemy paratroopers in house to house fighting; Germans moved out quickly the night before when they were in danger of being cut off.
1929 Aklavik NWT - Wilfred Wop May 1896-1952 flies first official air mail north to Aklavik.
1891 Hull Quebec - Ottawa and Gatineau Valley Railway opens a line to LaPeche (Wakefield); Canadian Pacific will complete the line to Maniwaki Jan. 08, 1904.
1876 Montreal Quebec - Grand Trunk Railway engine drivers go on strike for the first time.
1859 Winnipeg Manitoba - William Coldwell and William Buckingham publish first issue of The Nor'Wester at Fort Garry; first newspaper in Red River Settlement; the former reporters on the Toronto Globe bought a hand press in St. Paul, Minnesota, which they transported to Red River by ox cart.
1857 Kamloops British Columbia - Governor James Douglas 1803-1877 issues proclamation regulating new gold mines in Kamloops, Ashcroft and Vernon areas; proclaims Crown's control of mineral rights; requires BC mining licenses.
1857 Montreal Quebec - Thomas D'Arcy McGee elected MLA for Montreal West.
1837 Toronto Ontario - Upper Canada Governor Francis Bond Head 1793-1875 approves raising of six regiments of incorporated militia to head off potential rebellion.
1814 Quebec - Gordon Drummond 1771-1854 appointed administrator of Lower Canada; serves from May 4, 1815 to May 21, 1816.

End of C/P.

 

[henric]

December 29th 2013 - This Date in History.


Events:C/P.

1170 – Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, is assassinated inside Canterbury Cathedral by followers of King Henry II; he subsequently becomes a saint and martyr in the Anglican Church and the Catholic Church.
1427 – Army of Ming Dynasty started withdrawing from Hanoi, put an end to the domination of Đại Việt.
1508 – Portuguese forces under the command of Francisco de Almeida attack Khambhat at the Battle of Dabul.
1778 – American Revolutionary War: 3,000 British soldiers under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Archibald Campbell capture Savannah, Georgia.
1786 – French Revolution: The Assembly of Notables is convened.
1812 – The USS Constitution under the command of Captain William Bainbridge, captures the HMS Java off the coast of Brazil after a three hour battle.
1813 – British soldiers burn Buffalo, New York during the War of 1812.
1835 – The Treaty of New Echota is signed, ceding all the lands of the Cherokee east of the Mississippi River to the United States.
1845 – In accordance with International Boundary delimitation, United States annexes the Republic of Texas, following the manifest destiny doctrine. The Republic of Texas, which had been independent since the Texas Revolution of 1836, is thereupon admitted as the 28th U.S. state.
1851 – The first American YMCA opens in Boston, Massachusetts.
1860 – The first British seagoing ironclad warship, HMS Warrior is launched.
1876 – The Ashtabula River Railroad Disaster occurs, leaving 64 injured and 92 dead at Ashtabula, Ohio.
1890 – Wounded Knee Massacre on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, 300 Lakota killed by the US Army.
1911 – Sun Yat-sen becomes the provisional President of the Republic of China; he formally takes office on January 1, 1912.
1911 – Mongolia gains independence from the Qing Dynasty.
1914 – A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, the first novel by James Joyce, is serialized in The Egoist.
1930 – Sir Muhammad Iqbal's presidential address in Allahabad introduces the Two nation theory and outlines a vision for the creation of Pakistan.
1934 – Japan renounces the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 and the London Naval Treaty of 1930.
1937 – The Irish Free State is replaced by a new state called Ireland with the adoption of a new constitution.
1939 – First flight of the Consolidated B-24 Liberator.
1940 – World War II: In the Second Great Fire of London, the Luftwaffe fire-bombs London, England, UK, killing almost 200 civilians.
1949 – KC2XAK of Bridgeport, Connecticut becomes the first Ultra high frequency (UHF) television station to operate a daily schedule.
1959 – Physicist Richard Feynman gives a speech entitled "There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom", which is regarded as the birth of nanotechnology.
1959 – The Lisbon Metro begins operation.
1972 – An Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 (a Lockheed L-1011 TriStar) crashes on approach to Miami International Airport, Florida, killing 101.
1975 – A bomb explodes at LaGuardia Airport in New York, New York, killing 11 people and injuring 74.
1989 – Riots break-out after Hong Kong decides to forcibly repatriate Vietnamese refugees.
1992 – Fernando Collor de Mello, president of Brazil, tries to resign amidst corruption charges, but is then impeached.
1996 – Guatemala and leaders of Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity sign a peace accord ending a 36-year civil war.
1997 – Hong Kong begins to kill all the nation's 1.25 million chickens to stop the spread of a potentially deadly influenza strain.
1998 – Leaders of the Khmer Rouge apologize for the 1970s genocide in Cambodia that claimed over 1 million lives.
2001 – A fire at the Mesa Redonda shopping center in Lima, Peru, kills at least 291.
2003 – The last known speaker of Akkala Sami dies, rendering the language extinct.
2006 – UK settles its Anglo-American loan - post WWII loan debt.







Today's Canadian Headline...


1967 PARLIAMENT VOTES TO END DEATH PENALTY
Ottawa Ontario - Parliament drops death penalty for murder, except policemen or prison guards; for five-year trial period.

1837

Buffalo, New York - Royal Navy Commander Andrew Drew 1792-1878 and a group of Canadian militiamen cross the Niagara River to Fort Schlosser, and capture the American supply steamer Caroline used by William Lyon Mackenzie and his rebels on Navy Island; they set the ship ablaze, cut her adrift and send her toward Niagara Falls; incident almost causes war between Britain and US. Legend says she went over the Falls.


In Other Events...

1997 Toronto Ontario - Jacques Villeneuve voted Canada's Male Athlete of the Year; winner of Formula 1 Grand Prix driving championship.
1997 Toronto Ontario - Kmart announces the closure of 10 stores across Canada; finding it difficult to compete against WalMart
1995 Dallas Texas - Detroit Red Wings' Scotty Bowman coaches his 1,607th career game, beating the Dallas Stars 2-1; becomes the NHL's all-time leader in games coached, passing former St. Louis and NY Islanders Al Arbour.
1995 Bormio Italy - Canadian Edi Podivinsky wins bronze in the World Cup Bormio downhill race.
1992 Ottawa Ontario - Fisheries Minister John Crosbie bans capture of beluga whales for export; after pair die in a Chicago aquarium.
1992 New York City - Washington Capitals' goaltender Don Beaupre plays his 500th game, in a 4-3 overtime home win over the New York Rangers.
1991 Stratford Ontario - Susan Wright dies at age 44 in house fire that kills parents as well; actress at Stratford and Shaw Festivals; winner of Dora Mavor Moore awards.
1989 New York City - NHL star Wayne Gretzky named Male Athlete of the Decade by the Associated Press; Martina Navratilova the Woman Athlete.
1989 Ottawa Ontario - Canada the first country in the world to ban smoking on domestic airlines.
1969 Toronto Ontario - First Canadian production of the rock musical 'Hair' opened at the Royal Alexandra Theatre; cast includes Terrence Black, Gale Garnett, Tobi Lark and Lucy Sweeny; closes Jan. 03, 1971.
1967 Ottawa Ontario - Opening of Ottawa Civic Centre; exhibition hall and arena attached to Lansdowne Park.
1958 Montreal Quebec - Radio-Canada's 75 producers go on strike.
1947 Victoria BC - Byron Ingemar Johnson sworn in as British Columbia Premier, replacing John Hart, in office since Dec. 09, 1941; serves to Aug. 01, 1952.
1945 Windsor Ontario - End of bitter UAW strike against Ford of Canada; started Sept. 12 when 17,000 workers walked off the job; both sides agree to binding arbitration by Justice Ivan C. Rand.
1945 Ottawa Ontario - DND releases World War II casualty statistics; 41,371 Canadians in service killed, 43,178 wounded, 10,844 made prisoners of war, 32 missing in action.
1945 Montreal Quebec - Canadiens' right winger Maurice Richard scores his 100th NHL goal in his 134th game.
1944 France - RCAF Flight Lt. Dick Audet destroys five German planes in ten minutes.
1921 Ottawa Ontario - William Lyon Mackenzie King 1874-1950 becomes Prime Minister on defeat of Arthur Meighen in Commons; he is Canada's 10th Prime Minister; 12th Dominion Ministry, until June 28, 1929.
1919 Toronto Ontario - Sir William Osler 1849-1919 dies at age 70; born in Toronto Jul. 12, 1849; Osler was a physician, and an expert in the circulatory system and general practice.
1917 Toronto Ontario - Montreal Canadiens record their first road loss, losing to the Toronto Arenas 7-5.
1906 Montreal Quebec - Montreal Wanderers beat New Glasgow, Nova Scotia for Stanley Cup (2nd game of 1906).
1901 Charlottetown PEI - Arthur Peters 1854-1908 sworn in as Liberal Premier of PEI; serves until his death Jan. 29, 1908.
1896 Quebec Quebec - First issue of newspaper Le Soleil.
1894 Toronto Ontario - John Wilson Bengough 1851-1923 stops publishing satirical weekly `Grip'; since May 24, 1873.
1884 Kingston Ontario - Kingston and Pembroke Railway opens line to Renfrew.
1877 Montreal Quebec - Grand Trunk Railroad workers strike to support fired members of Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers; strike broken by use of militia and unorganized workers.
1854 Ottawa Ontario - Bytown and Prescott Railway starts service, linking the city with the Grand Trunk Railway.
1827 Halifax, Nova Scotia - Joseph Howe acquires the Novascotian newspaper from George Young; first published in 1824.
1813 Buffalo, New York - Major General Phineas Riall attacks villages of Black Rock and Buffalo with a party of Canadian militia and Indians to get revenge on burning of Newark and Queenston on Dec. 10.
1673 Loretteville Quebec - Founding of the Mission Huronne de l'Ancienne-Lorette; many refugees from Huronia.
1635 Quebec Quebec - Authorities publish official notices forbidding blasphemy.
1625 La Rochelle, France - Samuel de Champlain leaves his property near La Rochelle; will be back in Quebec by July next.
1612 La Rochelle, France - Samuel de Champlain and Hélène Boullé given the right to consummate their union; marriage contract signed two years earlier, when Hélène was 12.

End of C/P.

 

[henric]

Events:C/P.


1066 – Granada massacre: A Muslim mob storms the royal palace in Granada, crucifies Jewish vizier Joseph ibn Naghrela and massacres most of the Jewish population of the city.
1460 – Wars of the Roses: Battle of Wakefield.
1702 – Queen Anne's War: James Moore, Governor of the Province of Carolina, abandons the Siege of St. Augustine.
1816 – The Treaty of St. Louis (1816) between the United States and the united Ottawa, Ojibwa, and Potawatomi Indian tribes is proclaimed.
1825 – The Treaty of St. Louis (1825) between the United States and the Shawnee Nation is proclaimed.
1853 – Gadsden Purchase: The United States buys land from Mexico to facilitate railroad building in the Southwest.
1896 РFilipino patriot and reform advocate Jos̩ Rizal is executed by a Spanish firing squad in Manila, Philippines.
1897 – The British Colony of Natal annexes Zululand.
1903 – A fire at the Iroquois Theater in Chicago, Illinois kills at least 605.
1905 – Former Idaho Governor Frank Steunenberg is assassinated at the front gate of his home in Caldwell.
1906 – The All-India Muslim League is founded in Dacca, East Bengal, British India. It went on to lay the foundations of Pakistan.
1916 – The last coronation in Hungary is performed for King Charles IV and Queen Zita.
1919 – Lincoln's Inn in London, England, UK admits its first female bar student.
1922 – The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is formed.
1927 – The Ginza Line, the first subway line in Asia, opens in Tokyo, Japan.
1936 – The United Auto Workers union stages its first sitdown strike.
1943 – Subhas Chandra Bose raises the flag of Indian independence at Port Blair.
1944 – King George II of Greece declares a regency, leaving the throne vacant.
1947 – King Michael of Romania is forced to abdicate by the Soviet Union-backed Communist government of Romania.
1948 – The Cole Porter Broadway musical, Kiss Me, Kate (1,077 performances), opens at the New Century Theatre and becomes the first show to win the Best Musical Tony Award.
1958 – The Guatemalan Air Force sinks several Mexican fishing boats alleged to have breached maritime borders, killing 3 and sparking international tension.
1965 – Ferdinand Marcos becomes President of the Philippines.
1972 – Vietnam War: The United States halts heavy bombing of North Vietnam.
1977 – For the second time, Ted Bundy escapes from his cell in Glenwood Springs, Colorado.
1981 – In the 39th game of his third NHL season, Wayne Gretzky scores five goals, giving him 50 on the year and setting a new NHL record previously held by Maurice Richard and Mike Bossy, who earlier had each scored 50 goals in 50 games.
1993 – Israel and Vatican City establish diplomatic relations.
1996 – In the Indian state of Assam, a passenger train is bombed by Bodo separatists, killing 26.
1996 – Proposed budget cuts by Benjamin Netanyahu spark protests from 250,000 workers who shut down services across Israel.
1997 – In the worst incident in Algeria's insurgency, the Wilaya of Relizane massacres, 400 people from four villages are killed.
2000 – Rizal Day bombings: A series of bombs explode in various places in Metro Manila, Philippines within a period of a few hours, killing 22 and injuring about a hundred.
2004 РA fire in the Rep̼blica Cromagnon nightclub in Buenos Aires, Argentina kills 194.
2005 – Tropical Storm Zeta forms in the open Atlantic Ocean, tying the record for the latest tropical cyclone ever to form in the North Atlantic basin.
2006 – Madrid–Barajas Airport is bombed.
2006 – The Indonesian passenger ferry MV Senopati Nusantara sinks in a storm, resulting in at least 400 deaths.
2006 – Former President of Iraq Saddam Hussein is executed.
2009 – A segment of the Lanzhou–Zhengzhou–Changsha pipeline ruptures in Shaanxi, China, and approximately 150,000 l (40,000 US gal) of diesel oil flows down the Wei River before finally reaching the Yellow River.
2009 – A suicide bomber kills nine people at Forward Operating Base Chapman, a key facility of the Central Intelligence Agency in Afghanistan.
2011 – Owing to a change of time zone the day is skipped in Samoa and Tokelau.







Today's Canadian Headline...


1981 GRETZKY SHATTERS RICHARD RECORD
Edmonton Alberta - Wayne Gretzky scores five goals, including his 50th of the season into an empty net, leading the Oilers to a 7-5 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers. Scoring in only his 39th game of the season, Gretzky becomes the first player to reach the mark in fewer than 50 games, shattering Maurice Richard's NHL record.

1941

Ottawa Ontario - Winston Spencer Churchill arrives in Ottawa after his talks with President Roosevelt over strategy to win the war with Germany. In his Chateau Laurier studio, Yousef Karsh 1908- snaps this famous photo of a scowling Churchill - by telling him to pose without his cigar. In a speech to Parliament that evening, he quips, 'Hitler thought that England would have her neck wrung like a chicken... Some chicken... some neck.'



In Other Events...


1992 Ottawa Ontario - RCMP Commissioner Norman Inkster to investigate suicide of Inspector Claude Savoie, age 49, ex head of Montreal drug squad; day before Fifth Estate alleges links with Montreal drug kingpin Alan Ross.
1992 Victoria BC - Sue Rodriguez to appeal court ruling that Criminal Code ban on suicide aid does not violates her Charter rights; terminally ill with Lou Gherig's Disease; wants assisted suicide.
1988 Ottawa Ontario - The Senate passes the bill approving the Canada-US Free Trade Agreement.
1923 Montreal Quebec - Canadian National Railways sets up the first radio network in Canada by hooking up Montreal station CHYC with CNRO Ottawa over telephone lines to broadcast the CNR anniversary program.
1909 Porcupine Ontario - Gold discovered in Porcupine.
1908 Montreal Quebec - Montreal Wanderers lose to Edmonton but retain Stanley Cup by winning the most total points in a 2 game series (4th game of 1908).
1896 Montreal Quebec - Montreal Victorias beat Winnipeg Victorias 6-5 for the Stanley Cup.
1881 Ottawa Ontario - John Douglas Sutherland, Marquis of Lorne 1845-1914 founds The Royal Society of Canada, to promote learning in the arts and sciences.
1870 Manitoba - Manitoba holds first provincial election.
1861 St. Andrews New Brunswick - 62nd Wiltshire Regiment despatched to St. Andrews, New Brunswick; as a response to Trent crisis.
1834 Toronto Ontario - Fire destroys Parliament Buildings of Upper Canada at York.
1650 Quebec Quebec - Fire destroys Ursuline convent at Quebec.

End of C/P.

 

[henric]

December 31st 2013 - This Date in History.


Events:C/P.

406 – Vandals, Alans and Suebians cross the Rhine, beginning an invasion of Gaul.
535 – Byzantine general Belisarius completes the conquest of Sicily, defeating the Gothic garrison of Palermo (Panormos), and ending his consulship for the year.
1225 – The Lý Dynasty of Vietnam ends after 216 years by the enthronement of the boy emperor Trần Thái Tông, husband of the last Lý monarch, Lý Chiêu Hoàng, starting the Trần Dynasty.
1229 – James I of Aragon the Conqueror enters Medina Mayurqa (now known as Palma, Spain) thus consummating the Christian reconquest of the island of Majorca.
1501 – The First Battle of Cannanore commences.
1600 – The British East India Company is chartered.
1660 – James II of England is named Duke of Normandy by Louis XIV of France.
1687 – The first Huguenots set sail from France to the Cape of Good Hope.
1695 – A window tax is imposed in England, causing many householders to brick up windows to avoid the tax.
1757 РEmpress Elizabeth I of Russia issues her ukase incorporating K̦nigsberg into Russia
1759 – Arthur Guinness signs a 9,000 year lease at £45 per annum and starts brewing Guinness.
1775 – American Revolutionary War: Battle of Quebec: British forces repulse an attack by Continental Army General Richard Montgomery.
1790 – Efimeris, the oldest Greek newspaper of which issues have survived till today is published for the first time.
1796 – The incorporation of Baltimore as a city.
1831 – Gramercy Park is deeded to New York, New York.
1853 – A dinner party is held inside a life-size model of an Iguanodon created by Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins and Sir Richard Owen in south London, England, United Kingdom
1857 – Queen Victoria chooses Ottawa, then a small logging town, as the capital of Canada.
1862 – American Civil War: Abraham Lincoln signs an act that admits West Virginia to the Union, thus dividing Virginia in two.
1862 – American Civil War: The Battle of Stones River begins near Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
1878 – Karl Benz, working in Mannheim, Germany, filed for a patent on his first reliable two-stroke gas engine, and he was granted the patent in 1879.
1879 – Thomas Edison demonstrates incandescent lighting to the public for the first time, in Menlo Park, New Jersey.
1906 – Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar signs the Persian Constitution of 1906.
1907 – The first New Year's Eve celebration is held in Times Square (then known as Longacre Square) in New York, New York.
1909 – Manhattan Bridge opens.
1923 – The chimes of Big Ben are broadcast on radio for the first time by the BBC.
1944 – World War II: Hungary declares war on Nazi Germany.
1944 – World War II: Operation Nordwind, the last major German offensive on the Western Front begins.
1946 – President Harry S. Truman officially proclaims the end of hostilities in World War II.
1951 – The Marshall Plan expires after distributing more than US$13.3 billion in foreign aid to rebuild Europe.
1955 – General Motors becomes the first U.S. corporation to make over US$1 billion in a year.
1960 – The farthing coin ceases to be legal tender in the United Kingdom.
1961 – RTÉ, Ireland's state broadcaster, launches its first national television service.
1963 – The Central African Federation officially collapses and splits into Zambia, Malawi and Rhodesia.
1965 РJean-B̩del Bokassa, leader of the Central African Republic army, and his military officers begins a coup d'̩tat against the government of President David Dacko.
1967 – The Youth International Party, popularly known as the "Yippies", is founded.
1981 РA coup d'̩tat in Ghana removes President Hilla Limann's PNP government and replaces it with the Provisional National Defence Council led by Flight lieutenant Jerry Rawlings.
1983 – The AT&T Bell System is broken up by the United States Government.
1983 РIn Nigeria a coup d'̩tat led by Major General Muhammadu Buhari ends the Second Nigerian Republic.
1986 – A fire at the Dupont Plaza Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico, kills 97 and injures 140.
1988 – Pittsburgh Penguins' Mario Lemieux becomes the only National Hockey League player to score goals in five different ways: even strength, shorthanded, power play, penalty shot, and empty net, during a 8–6 win over the New Jersey Devils.
1988 – First Winter Ascent of Lhotse (8,516m) by Krzysztof Wielicki (solo).
1991 – All official Soviet Union institutions have ceased operations by this date and the Soviet Union is officially dissolved.
1992 – Czechoslovakia is peacefully dissolved in what is dubbed by media as the Velvet Divorce, resulting in the creation of the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
1993 – Brandon Teena and two others are shot to death inside a farmhouse in Humboldt, Nebraska by John Lotter and Tom Nissen after the two men discovered Teena was transgender.
1994 – This date is skipped altogether in Kiribati as the Phoenix Islands and Line Islands change time zones from UTC−11:00 to UTC+13:00 and UTC−10:00 to UTC+14:00, respectively.
1994 – The First Chechen War: Russian army began a New Year's storm of Grozny
1998– The European Exchange Rate Mechanism freezes the values of the legacy currencies in the Eurozone, and establishes the value of the euro currency.
1999 – First President of Russia, Boris Yeltsin, resigns from office, leaving Prime Minister Vladimir Putin as the acting President and successor.
1999 – Five hijackers, who had been holding 155 hostages on an Indian Airlines plane, leave the plane with two Islamic clerics that they had demanded be freed.
1999 – The United States Government hands control of the Panama Canal (as well all the adjacent land to the canal known as the Panama Canal Zone) to Panama. This act complied with the signing of the 1977 Torrijos–Carter Treaties.
2004 – The official opening of Taipei 101, the tallest skyscraper at that time in the world, standing at a height of 509 metres (1,670 ft).
2009 – Both a blue moon and a lunar eclipse occur.
2011 – NASA succeeds in putting the first of two Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory satellites in orbit around the moon.






Today's Canadian Headline...


1929 SWEETEST MUSIC THIS SIDE OF HEAVEN
New York City - Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians play Auld Lang Syne to usher in the New Year for the very first time, in their first annual New Year's Eve Party at the Hotel Roosevelt Grill. The show is broadcast over the CBS radio network. Born in London Ontario, Guy founded the Lombardo Orchestra with his brother Carmen in 1916. Auld Lang Syne was his band's theme song before 1929, but tonight was the start of a New Year's Eve tradition. The Lombardo Orchestra is the longest running act in show business history, and has premiered over 500 hit songs, more than any other musical organization.. The Lombardo New Year's Eve Party, which later switched to the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, was the longest running annual special program in radio history. The Lombardo Orchestra has performed for more than 1.5 billion TV viewers since they first telecast their New Year's Eve Party in 1954. Guy Lombardo died in 1977.

1775
Quebec Quebec - American Brigadier-General Richard Montgomery 1738-1775 orders the attack on Quebec from the Lower Town at 5 am during a bitterly cold blizzard; he is killed at a fortified gate during the fire fight; Benedict Arnold is wounded. Guy Carleton, Baron Dorchester 1724-1808 repels Americans with the aid of Col. Allan Maclean.


In Other Events...


1991 Port-au-Prince Haiti - Seventeen Haitian activists surrender to police after occupying Canadian Embassy for six weeks.
1982 Ottawa Ontario - Ottawa reports 12.8% unemployment, the worst since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
1980 Toronto Ontario - Marshall McLuhan 1911-1980 dies; University of Toronto writer, communications guru; born Jul. 21, 1911; famous for his statement that The Medium Is The Message.
1966 Ottawa Ontario - Lester B. Pearson 1897-1972 lights Centennial Flame at entrance to Parliament Hill to begin celebrations.
1963 North Bay Ontario - Nuclear warheads for Bomarc missiles arrive at RCAF base near North Bay.
1943 Canada - RCAF at peak, with 215,000 men and women, 78 squadrons, including 35 overseas and 6 heading there; Canada has produced 11,000 planes so far.
1941 Canada - RCAF has 14 squadrons operating overseas, 7 more authorized; plus 16 at home, including 8 on west coast.
1931 Canada - Canadian stock index plunges 37.2%; GNP declines 12.7%; worst business year on record in the country.
1931 Henderson Lake BC - Henderson Lake ends the year with a total of 319.78 inches of rain; wettest place on record in Canadian history.
1883 Fredericton New Brunswick - First mustering of 'A' Company of the Infantry School Corps; first unit of Canadian Permanent Force; later becomes Royal Canadian Regiment.
1860 Brockville Ontario - Canada's first railway tunnel opened in Brockville; connecting harbour and Grand Trunk Railway.
1857 Canada - Canada officially goes on system of decimal currency at midnight.
1857 Ottawa Ontario - Queen Victoria 1819-1901 chooses the town of Ottawa as the new capital of Canada; on advice of George-Etienne Cartier; official announcement made January 27th.
1853 London Ontario - Great Western Railway reaches London from Hamilton.
1799 Toronto Ontario - Asa Danforth completes Danforth Road from York 96 km to Hope Township.
1791 Ontario - William Osgoode 1754-1824 first chief justice of Upper Canada; gave his name to Osgoode Hall, HQ of the Law Society of Upper Canada.
1646 Quebec Quebec - Martial Piraubé, Governor Montmagny's secretary, plays the lead in 'Le Cid,' by Corneille; first play performed at Quebec.
1638 Huronia Ontario - A lunar eclipse in Huron country panics natives, who place blame on Jesuits.

End of C/P.

 

[henric]

January 1st 2014 - This Date in History.


Events:C/P.


1515 – King Francis I of France succeeds to the French throne.
1527 – Croatian nobles elect Ferdinand I of Austria as King of Croatia in the Parliament on Cetin.
1600 – Scotland begins its numbered year on January 1 instead of March 25.
1651 – Charles II is crowned King of Scotland.
1700 – Russia begins using the Anno Domini era and no longer uses the Anno Mundi era of the Byzantine Empire.
1707 – John V is crowned King of Portugal.
1739 – Bouvet Island is discovered by French explorer Jean-Baptiste Charles Bouvet de Lozier.
1772 – The first traveler's cheques, which can be used in 90 European cities, go on sale in London, England, Great Britain.
1773 – The hymn that became known as "Amazing Grace", then titled "1 Chronicles 17:16–17" is first used to accompany a sermon led by John Newton in the town of Olney, England.
1776 – American Revolutionary War: Norfolk, Virginia is burned by combined Royal Navy and Continental Army action.
1781 – American Revolutionary War: 1,500 soldiers of the 6th Pennsylvania Regiment under General Anthony Wayne's command rebel against the Continental Army's winter camp in Morristown, New Jersey in the Pennsylvania Line Mutiny of 1781.
1788 – First edition of The Times of London, previously The Daily Universal Register, is published.
1800 – The Dutch East India Company is dissolved.
1801 – The legislative union of Kingdom of Great Britain and Kingdom of Ireland is completed to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
1822 – The Greek Constitution of 1822 is adopted by the First National Assembly at Epidaurus.
1833 – The United Kingdom claims sovereignty over the Falkland Islands.
1845 – The Cobble Hill Tunnel in Brooklyn, New York, New York is completed.
1847 – The world's first "Mercy" Hospital is founded in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania by the Sisters of Mercy, the name will go on to grace over 30 major hospitals throughout the world.
1860 – First Polish stamp is issued.
1890 – Eritrea is consolidated into a colony by the Italian government.
1890 – The Rose Parade in Pasadena, California, is first held.
1892 – Ellis Island opens to begin processing immigrants into the United States.
1894 – The Manchester Ship Canal, England, is officially opened to traffic.
1898 – New York, New York annexes land from surrounding counties, creating the City of Greater New York. The four initial boroughs, Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and The Bronx, are joined on January 25 by Staten Island to create the modern city of five boroughs.
1906 – British India officially adopts the Indian Standard Time.
1908 – For the first time, a ball is dropped in New York, New York's Times Square to signify the start of the New Year at midnight.
1909 – Drilling begins on the Lakeview Gusher.
1910 – Captain David Beatty is promoted to Rear admiral, and becomes the youngest admiral in the Royal Navy (except for Royal family members), since Horatio Nelson.
1911 – Northern Territory is separated from South Australia and transferred to Commonwealth control.
1912 – The Republic of China is established.
1913 – The British Board of Censors is established.
1916 РGerman troops abandon Yaound̩ and their Kamerun colony to British forces and begin the long march to Spanish Guinea.
1920 – The Belorussian Communist Organisation is founded as a separate party.
1923 – Britain's Railways are grouped into the Big Four: LNER, GWR, SR, and LMS.
1927 – The Cristero War begins in Mexico.
1927 – Turkey adopts the Gregorian calendar: December 18, 1926 (Julian), is immediately followed by January 1, 1927 (Gregorian).
1928 – Boris Bazhanov defects through Iran. He is the only assistant of Joseph Stalin's secretariat to have defected from the Eastern Bloc.
1934 – Nazi Germany passes the "Law for the Prevention of Genetically Diseased Offspring".
1937 – Safety glass in vehicle windscreens becomes mandatory in the United Kingdom.
1939 – Sydney, Australia, swelters in 45 ˚C (113 ˚F) heat, a record for the city.
1942 – The Declaration by United Nations is signed by twenty-six nations.
1945 – World War II: In retaliation for the Malmedy massacre, U.S. troops massacre 30 SS prisoners at Chenogne.
1945 – World War II: The German Luftwaffe launches Operation Bodenplatte, a massive, but failed attempt to knock out Allied air power in northern Europe in a single blow.
1947 – The American and British occupation zones in Germany, after World War II, merge to form the Bizone, that later became West Germany.
1956 – A new year event causes panic and stampedes at Yahiko Shrine, Yahiko, Niigata, Japan, killing at least 124 people.
1957 – George Town, Penang becomes a city by a royal charter granted by Elizabeth II.
1957 – An Irish Republican Army (IRA) unit attacks Brookeborough RUC barracks during Operation Harvest; two IRA volunteers killed.
1958 – The European Economic Community is established.
1959 – Fulgencio Batista, dictator of Cuba, is overthrown by Fidel Castro's forces during the Cuban Revolution.
1960 – Cameroon achieves independence from France and the United Kingdom.
1962 – Western Samoa achieves independence from New Zealand; its name is changed to the Independent State of Western Samoa.
1962 – United States Navy SEALs established.
1964 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is divided into the independent republics of Zambia and Malawi, and the British-controlled Rhodesia.
1965 – The People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan is founded in Kabul, Afghanistan.
1966 – A twelve-day New York City transit strike begins.
1966 РAfter a coup, Colonel Jean-B̩del Bokassa assumes power as president of the Central African Republic.
1970 – Unix time begins at 00:00:00 UTC/GMT.
1971 – Cigarette advertisements are banned on American television.
1973 – Denmark, the United Kingdom, and Ireland are admitted into the European Economic Community.
1977 – Charter 77 published its first document.
1978 – Air India Flight 855 Boeing 747 crashes into the sea, due to instrument failure and pilot disorientation, off the coast of Bombay, India, killing 213.
1978 – The Constitution of the Northern Mariana Islands becomes effective.
1979 – Formal diplomatic relations are established between China and the United States.
1980 – Victoria is crowned princess of Sweden.
1981 – Greece is admitted into the European Community.
1981 – Palau achieves self-government though it is not independent from the United States.
1982 РPeruvian Javier P̩rez de Cu̩llar becomes the first Latin American to hold the title of Secretary-General of the United Nations.
1982 – ITV franchise ATV gets replaced by Central
1983 – The ARPANET officially changes to using the Internet Protocol, creating the Internet.
1984 – The original American Telephone & Telegraph Company is divested of its 22 Bell System companies as a result of the settlement of the 1974 United States Department of Justice antitrust suit against AT&T.
1984 – Brunei becomes independent of the United Kingdom.
1985 – The Internet's Domain Name System is created.
1985 – The first British mobile phone call is made by Ernie Wise to Vodafone.
1986 РAruba becomes independent of Cura̤ao, though it remains in free association with the Netherlands.
1986 – Spain and Portugal are admitted into the European Community.
1988 – The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America comes into existence, creating the largest Lutheran denomination in the United States.
1989 – The Montreal Protocol Protocol on Substances That Deplete the Ozone Layer comes into force.
1990 – David Dinkins is sworn in as New York City's first black mayor.
1992 – Russia is officially formed.
1993 – Dissolution of Czechoslovakia: Czechoslovakia is divided into Slovakia and the Czech Republic.
1993 – A single market within the European Community is introduced.
1994 – The Zapatista Army of National Liberation initiates twelve days of armed conflict in the Mexican State of Chiapas.
1995 – The Draupner wave in the North Sea in Norway is detected, confirming the existence of freak waves.
1996 РCura̤ao gains limited self-government, though it remains within free association with the Netherlands.
1997 – Zaire officially joins the World Trade Organization.
1997 – Ghanaian diplomat Kofi Annan is appointed Secretary-General of the United Nations.
1998 – Russia begins to circulate new rubles to stem inflation and promote confidence.
1998 – The European Central Bank is established.
1999 – The Euro currency is introduced in 11 countries - members of the European Union (with the exception of the United Kingdom, Denmark, Greece and Sweden).
2002 – Euro banknotes and coins become legal tender in twelve of the European Union's member states.
2002 – Taiwan officially joins the World Trade Organization, as Chinese Taipei.
2007 – Adam Air Flight 574 disappears over Indonesia with 102 people on board.
2008 – Cyprus and Malta join the Eurozone.
2009 – Sixty-six people die in a nightclub fire in Bangkok, Thailand.
2009 – Slovakia joins the Eurozone.
2010 – A suicide car bomber detonates at a volleyball tournament in Lakki Marwat, Pakistan, killing 105 and injuring 100 more.
2011 – A bomb explodes as Coptic Christians in Alexandria, Egypt, leave a new year service, killing 23 people.
2011 – Estonia joins the Eurozone.
2012 – A Moldovan civilian is fatally wounded by a Russian peacekeeper in the Transnistrian security zone, leading to demonstrations against Russia.
2013 – At least 60 people are killed and 200 injured in a stampede after celebrations at Félix Houphouët-Boigny Stadium in Abidjan, Ivory Coast.
2014 – Latvia joins the Eurozone.






Today's Canadian Headline...


1947 HAPPY NEW YEAR, YOU'RE A CANADIAN
Ottawa Ontario - Canadian Citizenship Act comes into effect, officially creating Canadian citizens; Canadian citizenship is paramount to being a British subject.

1899
London England - Canada agrees on Imperial Penny Postage; letter delivered anywhere within British Empire for 2 cents; the stamp was designed by Postmaster General Sir William Mulock.

1882
Montreal Quebec - William Cornelius Van Horne 1843-1915 appointed first General Manager of the Canadian Pacific Railway; the ex Illinois Central manager will finish the line far ahead of schedule.


In Other Events...


1994 Canada - North American Free Trade Agreement ( NAFTA) goes into effect, creating a potential tariff free zone in Canada, the US and Mexico.
1991 Ottawa Ontario - Federal 7% Goods and Services Tax (GST) comes into effect. Brian Mulroney created 8 Senate seats to pass the legislation, after it stalled in a Senate filibuster.
1990 Ottawa Ontario - MPs get pay raise to minimum $82,700, plus $20,000 tax free allowance; Prime Minister's salary to $153,700.
1989 Ottawa Ontario - Canada-U-S free-trade agreement takes effect; to cut or eliminate tariffs on trade over a 10-year period; sets up dispute settlement mechanism.
1987 Ontario - Ontario lawyers allowed to advertise their services by the Law Society of Upper Canada.
1982 Ottawa Ontario - Post office raises first class mail rates from 17¢ to 30¢.
1981 Chapais Quebec - Fire in a recreation club kills 48 New Year's Eve celebrants in the northern Quebec mining town of Chapais.
1980 Europe - Ottawa ski jumper Horst Bulau wins world cup 90 Metre ski jumping event.
1976 Windsor England - John George Diefenbaker 1895-1979 former Prime Minister appointed a Companion of Honour by Queen Elizabeth.
1974 Montreal Quebec - Montreal and Canadian Stock exchanges merge as the Montreal Stock Exchange.
1972 Ottawa Ontario - Edgar Benson's Tax Reform Act passed by Parliament.
1970 Thunder Bay Ontario - Cities of Fort William and Port Arthur unite as Thunder Bay.
1969 Halifax Nova Scotia - Halifax annexes five western suburbs, increasing the city's population to 123,000.
1967 Ottawa Ontario - Prime Minister Lester Pearson ignites the Centennial Flame on Parliament Hill to mark the first centenary of Confederation, and the birth of the second.
1967 Victoria BC - Centennial train starts cross-country travels, to mark the first centenary of Confederation.
1966 Canada - Canada Pension Plan comes into operation.
1964 Quebec Quebec - Quebec passes new Electoral Act; lowers minimum voting age in provincial elections to 18 years.
1961 Quebec - Quebeckers now part of National Hospital Insurance Plan.
1959 Canada - Federal-provincial hospital plan goes into effect in Ontario and Nova Scotia.
1957 Canada - Start of Mid-Canada radar warning line operations; from James Bay to Peace River area; Bell Canada, representing Trans-Canada Telephone System, is project agent
1953 Ottawa Ontario - Founding of the National Library of Canada; formerly part of the Department of Agriculture
1952 Ottawa Ontario - New Old Age Security Act comes into effect, giving universal pensions to those 70 and over; an additional Old Age Assistance Act gives pensions to the needy from 65 to 69.
1945 France - Luftwaffe attacks RCAF in last major offensive.
1943 England - RCAF No. 6 Bomber Group begins operations from England; RCAF now has 31 squadrons overseas, 36 at home; Canada's largest air formation.
1942 Washington DC USA - A. F. W. Plumptre opens Wartime Prices and Trade Board Washington office; works with US Office of Civilian Supply and Office of Price Administration.
1941 Ottawa Ontario - Lorne Greene 1915- appointed as first announcer in CBC's new national news service; his stentorious tones in wartime broadcasts earn him the nickname, The Voice of Doom.
1940 Yellowknife NWT - Yellowknife becomes first municipal government in North West Territories.
1923 Ottawa Ontario - Founding of the Department of National Defence; as National Defence Act comes into effect
1922 BC - Motorists in British Columbia switch to driving on the right hand side of the road at midnight.
1917 Newfoundland - Prohibition comes into effect in Newfoundland.
1908 Thunder Bay Ontario - Doukhobor group reaches Fort William; returned to homes by Ontario government; began pilgrimage from Yorkton, Saskatchewan, in July 1907
1906 Montreal Quebec - L. E. Ouimet opens Ouimetoscope, Montreal's first specially built movie house.
1905 Edmonton Alberta - City of Edmonton establishes Edmonton Telephones.
1894 Ontario - Ontario votes for prohibition.
1885 Global - Sanford Fleming's proposal for Standard Time and time zones put into effect by 25 nations.
1878 Belleville Ontario - Belleville gets city charter.
1858 Canada - Decimal system of currency comes into effect in Canada.
1856 New Brunswick - NB's second prohibition law takes effect, as the 'mashers' defeat the 'rummies.'
1855 Ottawa Ontario - Ottawa incorporated as a city.
1851 Windsor Ontario - Henry Walton Bibb publishes first issue of 'Voice of the Fugitive,' a journal for escaped US slaves; son of white father and black mother
1851 Canada - Government abolishes primogeniture, where eldest son gets greater part of deceased father's property; all property divided equally among all children if there is no will
1849 New Brunswick - New Brunswick Electric Telegraph opens service.
1835 Halifax Nova Scotia - Joseph Howe 1804-1873 criticizes Halifax magistrates in his newspaper, The Nova Scotian; acquitted for libel May 3 when his remarks are called 'fair comment.'
1833 St. John's Newfoundland - Newfoundland Assembly meets for the first time at St. John's; first representative government
1830 Brockville Ontario - Ogle River Gowan opens the first Grand Lodge of Orange Order in Canada.
1823 Halifax Nova Scotia - Nova Scotia the first province to issue its own coinage.
1807 London England - Orders-in-Council blockade all neutral commerce with Europe, to retaliate against Napoleon; cause of War of 1812.
1743 North Dakota - François and Pierre de la Vérendrye see snow-capped mountains on the western horizon; thought to be the Rocky Mountains, it is more likely they are the Black Hills.
1714 Cape Breton Nova Scotia - Philippe Pasteur de Costebelle 1661-1717 appointed Governor of Cape Breton (Ile Royale).
1709 St. John's Newfoundland - Philippe Pasteur de Costebelle 1661-1717 takes St. John's.

End of C/P.

 

[henric]

January 2nd 2014 - This Date in History.


Events:C/P.

366 – The Alemanni cross the frozen Rhine River in large numbers, invading the Roman Empire.
533 – Mercurius becomes Pope John II, the first pope to adopt a new name upon elevation to the papacy.
1492 – Reconquista: the Emirate of Granada, the last Moorish stronghold in Spain, surrenders.
1777 – American Revolutionary War: American forces under the command of George Washington repulsed a British attack at the Battle of the Assunpink Creek near Trenton, New Jersey.
1788 – Georgia becomes the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution.
1791 – Big Bottom massacre in the Ohio Country, marking the beginning of the Northwest Indian War.
1818 – The British Institution of Civil Engineers is founded.
1833 – Reassertion of British sovereignty over the Falkland Islands.
1860 – The discovery of the planet Vulcan is announced at a meeting of the French Academy of Sciences in Paris, France.
1865 – Uruguayan War: The Siege of Paysandú ends as Brazilian and Coloradans capture Paysandú, Uruguay.
1871 – Amadeus I becomes King of Spain.
1900 – American Statesman and diplomat John Hay announces the Open Door Policy to promote trade with China.
1905 – Russo-Japanese War: The Russian garrison surrenders at Port Arthur, China.
1911 – A gun battle in the East End of London left two dead and sparked a political row over the involvement of then-Home Secretary Winston Churchill.
1920 – The second Palmer Raid takes place with another 6,000 suspected communists and anarchists arrested and held without trial. These raids take place in several U.S. cities.
1927 – Angered by the anti-clerical provisions of the Mexican Constitution of 1917, Catholic rebels in Mexico rebelled against the government.
1935 – Bruno Hauptmann goes on trial for the murder of Charles Lindbergh, Jr., infant son of aviator Charles Lindbergh.
1941 – World War II: German bombing severely damages the Llandaff Cathedral in Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom.
1942 – The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) convicts 33 members of a German spy ring headed by Fritz Joubert Duquesne in the largest espionage case in United States history—the Duquesne Spy Ring.
1942 – World War II: Manila, Philippines is captured by Japanese forces.
1945 – World War II: Nuremberg, Germany (in German, Nürnberg) is severely bombed by Allied forces.
1949 – Luis Muñoz Marín becomes the first democratically elected Governor of Puerto Rico.
1955 – Panamanian president José Antonio Remón Cantera is assassinated.
1959 – Luna 1, the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Moon and to orbit the Sun, is launched by the Soviet Union.
1963 – Vietnam War: The Viet Cong wins its first major victory in the Battle of Ap Bac.
1967 – Ronald Reagan sworn in as Governor of California
1971 – The second Ibrox disaster kills 66 fans at a Rangers-Celtic association football (soccer) match.
1974 – United States President Richard Nixon signs a bill lowering the maximum U.S. speed limit to 55 MPH in order to conserve gasoline during an OPEC embargo.
1975 – A bomb blast at Samastipur, Bihar, India, fatally wounds Minister of Railways Lalit Narayan Mishra.
1975 – Bangladeshi Marxist leader Siraj Sikder is arrested and dies while in police custody.
1976 – The Gale of January 1976 begins, which results in coastal flooding around the southern North Sea coasts, resulting in at least 82 deaths and US$1.3 billion in damage.
1981 – One of the largest investigations by a British police force ends when serial killer Peter Sutcliffe, the "Yorkshire Ripper", is arrested in Sheffield, South Yorkshire.
1992 – Leaders of armed opposition declare the President Zviad Gamsakhurdia deposed during a military coup in Georgia.
1993 – Sri Lankan Civil War: The Sri Lanka Navy kill 35-100 civilians on the Jaffna Lagoon.
1999 – A brutal snowstorm smashes into the Midwestern United States, causing 14 inches (359 mm) of snow in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and 19 inches (487 mm) in Chicago, Illinois, where temperatures plunge to -13 °F (-25 °C); 68 deaths are reported.
2004 – Stardust successfully flies past Comet Wild 2, collecting samples that are returned to Earth.
2006 – An explosion in a coal mine in Sago, West Virginia traps and kills 12 miners, while leaving one miner in critical condition.







Today's Canadian Headline...


1983 JOE CLARK RESIGNS
Ottawa Ontario - Joe Clark 1939- resigns as Leader of the Opposition after getting support of only 2/3 of delegates at Winnipeg; Erik Neilsen interim leader; calls leadership convention.

1929

Edmonton Alberta - World War I ace Wop May takes off with fellow bush pilot Vic Horner to deliver diphtheria vaccine to Fort Vermilion, Alberta, 1600 km north. The pilots make the trip in an open aircraft, with oil burners to keep the vaccine from freezing. A crowd of 10.000 greet the heroes on their return.


In Other Events...


1988 Washington DC - Brian Mulroney 1939- signs free trade accord with Ronald Reagan.
1983 Asia - Pierre Elliott Trudeau 1919- starts 18-day mission to Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, Philippines; returns Jan. 19
1951 Ottawa Ontario - Trade Minister C.D. Howe announces construction of a $30 million-dollar atomic reactor facility at Chalk River, Ontario.
1942 Washington DC - Canada signs declaration of unity with 27 other countries at war with the Axis; allies pledge not to make a separate armistice or peace.
1929 Niagara Falls Ontario - Canada and the US sign treaty to preserve Niagara Falls; limits diversion of water for hydro generation.
1918 Westmount Quebec - Montreal Wanderers' hockey arena burns down.
1917 Montreal Quebec - Royal Bank of Canada takes over the Quebec Bank, founded in 1882.
1908 Ottawa Ontario - Founding of the Royal Mint of Canada, as a branch of the British Royal Mint.
1884 Toronto Ontario - Railway accident at the Humber, west of Toronto, claims 31 lives.
1872 Ottawa Ontario - Canada and the US first share telegraphed weather reports.
1832 Toronto Ontario - William Lyon Mackenzie 1795-1861 wins back his seat in the Upper Canada Assembly in a by-election, 119 votes to 1. He had been expelled from the Legislature and was expelled again a few days later.
1826 Newfoundland - Founding of the Supreme Court of Newfoundland.

End of C/P.

 

[henric]

January 3rd 2014 - This Date in History.


Events:C/P.


1431 – Joan of Arc is handed over to Bishop Pierre Cauchon.
1521 – Pope Leo X excommunicates Martin Luther in the papal bull Decet Romanum Pontificem.
1653 – By the Coonan Cross Oath, the Eastern Church in India cuts itself off from colonial Portuguese tutelage.
1749 – Benning Wentworth issues the first of the New Hampshire Grants, leading to the establishment of Vermont.
1749 – The first issue of Berlingske, Denmark's oldest continually operating newspaper, is published.
1777 – American General George Washington defeats British General Lord Cornwallis at the Battle of Princeton.
1815 – Austria, the United Kingdom, and France form a secret defensive alliance against Prussia and Russia.
1823 – Stephen F. Austin receives a grant of land in Texas from the government of Mexico.
1848 – Joseph Jenkins Roberts is sworn in as the first president of the independent African Liberia.
1861 – American Civil War: Delaware votes not to secede from the United States.
1868 – Meiji Restoration in Japan: The Tokugawa shogunate is abolished; agents of Satsuma and Chōshū seize power.
1870 – Construction of the Brooklyn Bridge begins.
1885 – Beginning of the Battle of Nui Bop
1888 – The refracting telescope at the Lick Observatory, measuring 91 cm in diameter, is used for the first time. It was the largest telescope in the world at the time.
1911 – A magnitude 7.7 earthquake destroys the city of Almaty in Russian Turkestan.
1919 – At the Paris Peace Conference, Emir Faisal I of Iraq signs an agreement with Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann on the development of a Jewish homeland in Palestine and an Arab nation in a large part of the Middle East.
1925 – Benito Mussolini announces he is taking dictatorial powers over Italy.
1932 – Martial law is declared in Honduras to stop a revolt by banana workers fired by the United Fruit Company.
1933 – Minnie D. Craig becomes the first female elected as Speaker of the North Dakota House of Representatives, the first female to hold a Speaker position anywhere in the United States.
1938 – The March of Dimes is established by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
1944 – World War II: Top Ace Major Greg "Pappy" Boyington is shot down in his Vought F4U Corsair by Captain Masajiro Kawato flying a Mitsubishi A6M Zero.
1945 – World War II: Admiral Chester W. Nimitz is placed in command of all U.S. Naval forces in preparation for planned assaults against Iwo Jima and Okinawa in Japan.
1946 – Popular Canadian American jockey George Woolf dies in a freak accident during a race; the annual George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award is created to honor him.
1947 – Proceedings of the U.S. Congress are televised for the first time.
1949 – The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, the central bank of the Philippines, is established.
1953 – Frances P. Bolton and her son, Oliver from Ohio, become the first mother and son to serve simultaneously in the U.S. Congress.
1956 – A fire damages the top part of the Eiffel Tower.
1957 – The Hamilton Watch Company introduces the first electric watch.
1958 – The West Indies Federation is formed.
1959 – Alaska is admitted as the 49th U.S. state.
1959 – Separatists in the Maldives declare the establishment of the United Suvadive Republic.
1961 – The United States severs diplomatic relations with Cuba.
1961 – A core explosion and meltdown at the SL-1, a government-run reactor near Idaho Falls, Idaho, kills three workers.
1961 – In Finland's worst civilian aviation accident an Aero Flight 311 crashes near Kvevlax, resulting in the deaths of all 25 people aboard.
1962 – Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro.
1976 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights comes into effect.
1977 – Apple Computers is incorporated.
1990 – Former leader of Panama Manuel Noriega surrenders to American forces.
1993 – In Moscow, Russia, George Bush and Boris Yeltsin sign the second Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START).
1994 – More than seven million people from the former Apartheid Homelands, receive South African citizenship.
1996 – The Motorola StarTAC, the first flip phone and one of the first mobile phones to gain widespread consumer adoption, goes on sale.
1997 – China announces it will spend US$27.7 billion to fight erosion and pollution in the Yangtze and Yellow River valleys.
1999 – The Mars Polar Lander is launched.
1999 – Israel detains, and later expels, 14 members of Concerned Christians.
2000 – The last original weekday Peanuts comic strip is published.
2002 – Israeli forces seize the Palestinian freighter Karine A in the Red Sea, finding 50 tons of weapons.
2004 – Flash Airlines Flight 604 crashes into the Red Sea, resulting in 148 deaths, making it the deadliest aviation accident in Egyptian history.






Today's Canadian Headline...


1992 LAST MISS CANADA PAGEANT
Toronto Ontario - Miss Canada Pageant scrapped after 45 years, due to changing tastes and politics; Nicole Dunsdon, crowned Oct 1991, the last Miss Canada.

1863

Halifax Nova Scotia - Covered skating rink opens in Halifax; first covered skating rink in Canada. Up to this time, skating was all done out of doors, such as in this early version of hockey - lacrosse on ice.


In Other Events...


1990 Toronto Ontario - Merrill Lynch Canada sells retail arm to Wood Gundy Inc.
1985 Toronto Ontario - Justice Samuel Grange releases 224 page report on baby deaths at the Hospital for Sick Children; says 8 of 36 babies who died between June 1980 and March 1981 were given deliberate overdoses of digoxin, a heart drug; recommends province pay legal fees of Belleville nurse Susan Nelles, charged with four of the deaths, whose case was thrown out for lack of evidence.
1943 Algeria - Canadian Army troops arrive in North Africa.
1941 St. John's Newfoundland - Canada and the US acquire air bases at Gander and Goose Bay on a 99 year lease.
1931 Montreal Quebec - Nels Stewart of the Montreal Maroons scores two goals four seconds apart in the third period of a 5-3 victory over the Boston Bruins.
1912 Victoria BC - New Westminster Royals beat Victoria Aristocrats 8-3 in first Canadian hockey game played on artificial ice; organized by Frank Patrick.
1901 Toronto Ontario - Winston Spencer Churchill speaks at Massey Hall during book tour of Canada; talks about his adventures and exploits in Boer War
1862 Saint John New Brunswick - The Rifle Brigade lands at Saint John.
1849 Toronto Ontario - Opening of Royal Lyceum Theatre; seats 700
1802 Sydney Nova Scotia - 300 Scottish Highlanders arrive in Sydney to settle.
1793 Montreal Quebec - British decree abolishes slavery in Canada.
1621 Quebec Quebec - Henri, Duc de Montmorency gives 11 year trading monopoly to Guillaume & Emery de Caen in return for settling 6 families a year in Quebec; plus keeping 6 Recollet priests and not selling arms to Indians; names Guillaume de Caen general of the fleet of his new company; also known as La Compagnie de Caen.
1578 Paris France - Troilus de Mesgouez, Marquis de La Roche c1540-1606 named Viceroy of New France by Henri III; given monopoly of trade in return for colonization.

End of C/P.

 

[henric]

January 4th 2014 - This Date in History.


Events:C/P.


46 BC – Julius Caesar defeats Titus Labienus in the Battle of Ruspina.
871 РBattle of Reading: ̠thelred of Wessex fights, and is defeated by, a Danish invasion army.
1490 – Anne of Brittany announces that all those who would ally with the King of France will be considered guilty of the crime of Lese-majesty.
1642 – King Charles I of England sends soldiers to arrest members of Parliament, commencing England's slide into civil war.
1649 – English Civil War: The Rump Parliament votes to put Charles I on trial.
1717 – The Netherlands, Great Britain, and France sign the Triple Alliance.
1762 – Great Britain declares war on Spain and Naples.
1798 – Constantine Hangerli arrives in Bucharest, Wallachia, as its new Prince, invested by the Ottoman Empire.
1847 – Samuel Colt sells his first revolver pistol to the United States government.
1854 – The McDonald Islands are discovered by Captain William McDonald aboard the Samarang.
1863 – The New Apostolic Church, a Christian and chiliastic church, is established in Hamburg, Germany.
1865 – The New York Stock Exchange opens its first permanent headquarters at 10-12 Broad near Wall Street in New York, New York.
1878 – Sofia is emancipated from Ottoman rule.
1884 – The Fabian Society is founded in London, England, United Kingdom.
1889 – The Oklahoma Land Run opens 2 million acres of unused Oklahoma Territory to first serve first come settlers on April 22.
1896 – Utah is admitted as the 45th U.S. state.
1903 – Topsy, an elephant, is electrocuted by Thomas Edison during the War of Currents campaign.
1912 – The Scout Association is incorporated throughout the British Commonwealth by Royal charter.
1944 – World War II: Operation Carpetbagger, involving the dropping of arms and supplies to resistance fighters in Europe, begins.
1948 – Burma gains its independence from the United Kingdom.
1951 – Korean War: Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul.
1955 – The Greek National Radical Union is formed by Konstantinos Karamanlis.
1958 – Sputnik 1 falls to Earth from orbit.
1959 – Luna 1 becomes the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Moon.
1965 – United States President Lyndon B. Johnson proclaims his "Great Society" during his State of the Union address.
1966 – A military coup takes place in Upper Volta (later Burkina Faso), dissolving the National Parliament and leading to a new national constitution.
1970 – A magnitude 7.7 earthquake strikes Tonghai County, China, killing at least 15,000 people.
1972 – Rose Heilbron becomes the first female judge to sit at the Old Bailey in London, England.
1974 – United States President Richard Nixon refuses to hand over materials subpoenaed by the Senate Watergate Committee.
1976 – The Troubles: The Ulster Volunteer Force shoots dead six Irish Catholic civilians in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. The next day, gunmen shoot dead ten Protestant civilians nearby in retaliation.
1987 – The 1987 Maryland train collision: An Amtrak train en route to Boston, Massachusetts from Washington, D.C., collides with Conrail engines in Chase, Maryland, killing 16 people.
1989 – Second Gulf of Sidra incident: a pair of Libyan MiG-23 "Floggers" are shot down by a pair of US Navy F-14 Tomcats during an air-to-air confrontation.
1990 – In Pakistan's deadliest train accident an overloaded passenger train collides with an empty freight train, resulting in 307 deaths and 700 injuries.
1998 – Wilaya of Relizane massacres in Algeria: over 170 are killed in three remote villages.
1998 – A massive ice storm hits eastern Canada and the northeastern United States, continuing through January 10 and causing widespread destruction.
1999 – Former professional wrestler Jesse Ventura is sworn in as governor of Minnesota.
2000 – Two trains on the Røros Line collide in Ã…sta, Norway, resulting in an explosive fire and 19 deaths.
2004 – Spirit, a NASA Mars rover, lands successfully on Mars at 04:35 UTC.
2004 – Mikheil Saakashvili is elected President of Georgia following the November 2003 Rose Revolution.
2006 – Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel suffers a second, apparently more serious stroke. His authority is transferred to acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
2007 – The 110th United States Congress convenes, electing Nancy Pelosi as the first female Speaker of the House in U.S. history.
2010 – Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building, is officially opened.






Today's Canadian Headline...


1983 CRIMINAL CODE SEXUAL ASSAULT REFORMS
Ottawa Ontario - Criminal Code changes replace rape with 3 categories of sexual assault; equal protection to men and women; women allowed to charge their husbands with sexual assault.

1908
Toronto Ontario - Edward 'Ned' Hanlan 1855-1908 dies. Rower Hanlan was Canada's first world sporting champion. The Toronto-born sculler won the Ontario championship in 1873, and four years later, the Dominion cup. In 1878, he took the American title, and the following year the World Rowing Championship, which he held for five years. He is memorialized by a statue on Toronto's waterfront and Hanlan's Point on the Toronto Islands.


In Other Events...


1995 Quebec Quebec - Denis Lortie released on parole after serving 10 years in prison for 1984 shooting in the Quebec legislature, where he killed three people.
1993 Toronto Ontario - Manufacturers Life opens 14 Manulife Bank branches; converted out of smaller trust companies; first banks owned by insurance and trust companies under new financial rules.
1990 Europe - Canada defeats Czechoslovakia 2-1 to win World Junior Hockey title.
1984 Edmonton Alberta - Oiler Wayne Gretsky scores eight points in a night for the second time in his NHL career as Edmonton defeats the Minnesota North Stars, 12-8. Gretsky had four goals and four assists.
1983 Ottawa Ontario - Criminal Code changes replace rape with 3 categories of sexual assault; equal protection to men and women; women allowed to charge their husbands with sexual assault.
1975 Montreal Quebec - Montreal Canadiens shut out Washington Capitals 10-0.
1971 Montreal Quebec - Ottawa withdraws troops from Montreal and other areas in Quebec in wake of FLQ crisis.
1970 Montreal Quebec - Canada withdraws from international hockey tournament set for Montreal and Winnipeg to protest rules.
1965 Montreal Quebec - La Presse resumes publishing after seven-month strike.
1951 London England Britain - Louis Stephen St. Laurent 1882-1973 attends one-week meeting of Commonwealth Prime Ministers; discuss Commonwealth defence policy.
1919 London England - Robert Laird Borden 1854-1937 opens London exhibit of 400 war paintings by British and Canadian artists.
1904 Ottawa Ontario - Ottawa Silver 7 beat Winnipeg Rowing Club 2 games to 1 for the Stanley Cup.
1883 Toronto Ontario - Ontario Rugby Football Union (ORFU) founded; forerunner of CFL.
1839 Buffalo New York - William Lyon Mackenzie 1795-1861 arrested for violating US neutrality laws.
1839 Kingston Ontario - Rebels Christopher Buckley executed; Sylvester Lawton and Russell Phelps executed Feb. 11.
1830 Toronto Ontario - Opening of Upper Canada College at York.
1817 Toronto Ontario - Stagecoach service starts between York and Kingston; fare is 18 dollars.
1800 Toronto Ontario - John White c l761-1800 dies from wounds suffered in a duel fought on Jan 3; shot by John Small, Clerk of Executive Council; Attorney General of Upper Canada
1796 Toronto Ontario - Deputy Surveyor Augustus Jones starts cutting out Yonge St. north from York to Lake Simcoe with a company of Queen's Rangers.
1717 London England - Opening of the Seven Years War, as England declares war on Spain and Naples.

End of C/P.

 

[henric]

January 5th 2014 - This Date in History.


Events:C/P.


1066 – Edward the Confessor dies childless, sparking a succession crisis that will eventually lead to the Norman conquest of England.
1477 – Battle of Nancy: Charles the Bold is killed and Burgundy becomes part of France.
1500 – Duke Ludovico Sforza conquers Milan.
1527 – Felix Manz, a leader of the Anabaptist congregation in Zurich, Switzerland, is executed by drowning.
1554 – A great fire occurs in Eindhoven, Netherlands.
1675 – Battle of Colmar: the French army beats Brandenburg.
1757 – Louis XV of France survives an assassination attempt by Robert-François Damiens, the last person to be executed in France by drawing and quartering, the traditional and gruesome form of capital punishment used for regicides.
1781 – American Revolutionary War: Richmond, Virginia, is burned by British naval forces led by Benedict Arnold.
1782 – American Revolutionary War: French troops begin a siege of a British garrison on Brimstone Hill in Saint Kitts.
1846 – The United States House of Representatives votes to stop sharing the Oregon Territory with the United Kingdom.
1854 – The San Francisco steamer sinks, killing 300 people.
1895 – Dreyfus affair: French army officer Alfred Dreyfus is stripped of his rank and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil's Island.
1896 – An Austrian newspaper reports that Wilhelm Röntgen has discovered a type of radiation later known as X-rays.
1900 – Irish leader John Redmond calls for a revolt against British rule.
1909 – Colombia recognizes the independence of Panama.
1911 – Kappa Alpha Psi, the world's second oldest and largest black fraternity, is founded at Indiana University.
1912 – The Prague Party Conference takes place.
1913 – First Balkan War: During the Battle of Lemnos, Greek admiral Pavlos Kountouriotis forces the Turkish fleet to retreat to its base within the Dardanelles, from which it did not venture for the rest of the war.
1914 – The Ford Motor Company announces an eight-hour workday and a minimum wage of $5 for a day's labor.
1919 – The German Workers' Party, which would become the Nazi Party, is founded.
1925 – Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming becomes the first female governor in the United States.
1933 – Construction of the Golden Gate Bridge begins in San Francisco Bay.
1940 – FM radio is demonstrated to the Federal Communications Commission for the first time.
1944 – The Daily Mail becomes the first transoceanic newspaper.
1945 – The Soviet Union recognizes the new pro-Soviet government of Poland.
1949 – United States President Harry S. Truman unveils his Fair Deal program.
1957 – In a speech given to the United States Congress, United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces the establishment of what will later be called the Eisenhower Doctrine.
1968 – Alexander Dubček comes to power: "Prague Spring" begins in Czechoslovakia.
1969 – The Troubles: The Royal Ulster Constabulary raid the Bogside area of Derry, damaging property and beating residents. In response, residents erect barricades and establish Free Derry.
1972 – United States President Richard Nixon orders the development of a Space Shuttle program.
1974 – An earthquake in Lima, Peru, kills six people, and damages hundreds of houses.
1974 – Warmest reliably measured temperature in Antarctica of +59 °F (+15 °C) recorded at Vanda Station
1975 – The Tasman Bridge in Tasmania, Australia, is struck by the bulk ore carrier Lake Illawarra, killing twelve people.
1976 – The Khmer Rouge proclaim the Constitution of Democratic Kampuchea.
1976 – The Troubles: In response to the killing of six Catholics the night before, gunmen shoot dead ten Protestant civilians after stopping their minibus at Kingsmill in County Armagh, Northern Ireland, UK.
1991 – Georgian forces enter Tskhinvali, the capital of South Ossetia, Georgia, opening the 1991–1992 South Ossetia War.
1993 – The oil tanker MV Braer runs aground on the coast of the Shetland Islands, spilling 84,700 tons of crude oil.
2005 – Eris, the largest known dwarf planet in the Solar System, is discovered by the team of Michael E. Brown, Chad Trujillo, and David L. Rabinowitz using images originally taken on October 21, 2003, at the Palomar Observatory.






Today's Canadian Headline...


1910 MONTREAL CANADIENS PLAY FIRST GAME
Montreal Quebec - Le club athlétique Canadien hockey team play their first game, seven years before the founding of the NHL Their owner is J. Ambrose O'Brien and they are composed entirely of francophones until the 1911-12 season.


In Other Events...


1995 Toronto Ontario - Rogers Cablesystems President Colin Watson says 'We now know we have made a mistake,' as consumer revolt forces company to withdraw its negative option billing for seven new specialty cable-television channels; unless customers told Rogers they didn't want the channels, they would be automatically billed for them.
1990 St. John's Newfoundland - Victor Young, President of Fishery Products International, says the company will have to close its Grand Bank, Gaultois & Trepassy fish plants; Premier Wells announces $12 million subsidy; until 1991, saving 1300 jobs and 13 trawlers.
1986 Edmonton Alberta - Oilers star Wayne Gretzky becomes the first NHL player to score 100 or more points in seven consecutive seasons.
1983 Vancouver BC - Roman Catholic Bishops of Canada release New Year's message attacking government economic policy.
1982 Hamilton Ontario - Elizabeth Bagshaw dies at age 100; one of Canada's first female doctors, she graduated from the University of Toronto in 1905, and practiced medicine for over 60 years.
1982 Ottawa Ontario - Ottawa bans hiring skilled foreign workers in several mining, manufacturing and construction sectors; to protect Canadian jobs
1979 Edmonton Alberta - Opening of new dinosaur gallery at the Alberta Museum in Edmonton; houses three skeletons from Drumheller
1973 Ottawa Ontario - Ottawa protests US air raids on Hanoi and Haiphong, North Vietnam.
1971 Montreal Quebec - Paul Rose sentenced to two life terms for the kidnapping and non-capital murder of Pierre Laporte, Claude Simard gets life, Bernard Lortie gets 20 years
1967 Ottawa Ontario - John A. Macdonald's birthday, January 11, proclaimed as an official holiday, to be observed across country.
1967 Niagara Falls Ontario - US folk singer Jesse Winchester crosses Canadian border after being served draft papers for military service; applies to became a Canadian citizen..
1960 Ottawa Ontario - Charles F. Comfort 1900- appointed Director of National Gallery of Canada; succeeding Alan Jarvis (1915-1972)
1943 Ottawa Ontario - Supreme Court of Canada upholds War Measures Act, passed in 1914, which gives federal Cabinet emergency powers to govern by decree when it perceives the existence of 'war, invasion or insurrection, real or apprehended'.
1913 Quebec Quebec - Inspector-General of Imperial Forces Ian Hamilton arrives in Quebec to inspect Canadian troops.
1874 Winnipeg Manitoba - Winnipeg holds first civic election. Only 304 voters were registered, but 331 ballots are cast.
1838 Washington DC USA - US President Martin Van Buren issues Neutrality Proclamation forbidding US citizens from taking sides in Canadian rebellions; issues second proclamation Nov. 21
1680 Peoria Illinois - Rene-Robert Cavelier de La Salle 1643-1687 starts building Fort Crevecoeur at Illinois Indian village of Pimitoui on Lake Peoria; later destroyed by mutineers because of fear of Native attack.
1616 Nottawasaga Bay Ontario - Samuel de Champlain c1570-1635 sets off to visit Petun (Tobacco) Nation, south of Nottawasaga Bay, with Father Le Caron.

End of C/P.

 

[henric]

January 6th 2014 - This Date in History.


Events:C/P.

1066 – Harold Godwinson (or Harold II) is crowned King of England.
1118 – Reconquista: Alfonso the Battler conquers Zaragoza.
1205 – Philip of Swabia becomes King of the Romans.
1322 – Stephen Uroš III is crowned King of Serbia.
1355 – Charles I of Bohemia is crowned with the Iron Crown of Lombardy as King of Italy in Milan.
1449 – Constantine XI is crowned Byzantine Emperor at Mystras.
1492 – Ferdinand and Isabella The Catholic Monarchs enter Granada, completing the Reconquista.
1540 – King Henry VIII of England marries Anne of Cleves.
1579 – The Union of Arras is signed.
1661 – English Restoration: The Fifth Monarchists unsuccessfully attempt to seize control of London, England.
1690 – Joseph, son of Emperor Leopold I, becomes King of the Romans.
1721 – The Committee of Inquiry on the South Sea Bubble publishes its findings.
1781 – In the Battle of Jersey, the British defeat the last attempt by France to invade Jersey.
1809 – Combined British, Portuguese and colonial Brazilian forces begin the Invasion of Cayenne during the Napoleonic Wars.
1838 – Alfred Vail demonstrates a telegraph system using dots and dashes (this is the forerunner of Morse code).
1839 – The most damaging storm in 300 years sweeps across Ireland, damaging or destroying more than 20% of the houses in Dublin.
1853 – President-elect of the United States Franklin Pierce and his family are involved in a train wreck near Andover, Massachusetts.
1870 – The inauguration of the Musikverein in Vienna, Austria.
1893 – The Washington National Cathedral is chartered by Congress. The charter is signed by President Benjamin Harrison.
1900 – Second Boer War: Having already sieged the fortress at Ladysmith, Boer forces attack it, but are driven back by British defenders.
1907 – Maria Montessori opens her first school and daycare center for working class children in Rome, Italy.
1912 – New Mexico is admitted as the 47th U.S. state.
1912 – German geophysicist Alfred Wegener first presents his theory of continental drift.
1921 – Formation of the Iraqi Army.
1929 – King Alexander of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes suspends his country's constitution (the January 6th Dictatorship).
1929 – Mother Teresa arrives in Calcutta, India to begin her work among India's poorest and sick people.
1930 – The first diesel-engined automobile trip is completed, from Indianapolis, Indiana, to New York, New York.
1931 – Thomas Edison submits his last patent application.
1941 – United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivers his Four Freedoms speech in the State of the Union address.
1947 – Pan American Airlines becomes the first commercial airline to schedule a flight around the world.
1950 – The United Kingdom recognizes the People's Republic of China. The Republic of China severs diplomatic relations with the UK in response.
1951 – Ganghwa massacre: Korean War.
1953 – The first Asian Socialist Conference opens in Rangoon, Burma.
1960 – National Airlines Flight 2511 is destroyed in mid-air by a bomb, while en route from New York City to Miami, Florida.
1960 – The Associations Law comes into force in Iraq, allowing registration of political parties.
1967 – Vietnam War: United States Marine Corps and ARVN troops launch "Operation Deckhouse Five" in the Mekong River delta.
1974 – In response to the 1973 oil crisis, daylight saving time commences nearly four months early in the United States.
1978 – The Crown of St. Stephen (also known as the Holy Crown of Hungary) is returned to Hungary from the United States, where it was held after World War II.
1992 – President of Georgia Zviad Gamsakhurdia flees the country as a result of the military coup.
1993 – Indian Border Security Force units kill 55 Kashmiri civilians in Sopore, Jammu and Kashmir, in revenge after militants ambushed a BSF patrol.
1994 – Nancy Kerrigan is clubbed on the knee at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Detroit, Michigan.
1995 – A chemical fire in an apartment complex in Manila, Philippines, leads to the discovery of plans for Project Bojinka, a mass-terrorist attack.
2005 – American Civil Rights Movement: Edgar Ray Killen is arrested as a suspect in the 1964 murders of three civil rights workers.
2005 – A train collision in Graniteville, South Carolina, releases about 60 tons of chlorine gas.
2009 – Israel conducts an assault on Gaza. Operation Cast Lead







Today's Canadian Headline...


1920 FARMERS' GROUPS ESTABLISH THE PROGRESSIVE PARTY
Winnipeg Manitoba - T. A. Crerar chairs a meeting of Ontario and Prairie farmers' organizations to establish the National Progressive Party; he had resigned from Borden's Union cabinet in 1919 to protest the high tariff. The Progressive Party will elect 65 members to Parliament in the election of Dec. 1921.

1643
Montreal Quebec - Paul de Chomedy, Sieur de Maisonneuve, plants a cross at Ville Marie to offer thanks to God for saving the community from flooding.

1786
Saint John New Brunswick - First sitting of the NB legislature takes place at Saint John.



In Other Events...


1992 Quebec Quebec - Quebec judge rules that a 25-year- old paralyzed woman, 'Nancy B,' suffering from a rare neurological disorder and on life support, has no hope of recovery and has the right to die. Doctors will remove her life support on February 13, after a 30 day appeal period lapses.
1978 Montreal Quebec - Sun Life Assurance Co. of Canada to move head office from Montreal to Toronto.
1977 Lakefield Ontario - Prince Andrew starts attending Lakefield College School near Peterborough, for two terms; second in line to the British throne
1975 Winnipeg Manitoba - Manitoba to require disclosure of assets and business interests of legislators and senior officials.
1974 Ontario - Startup of the Global Television network in southern Ontario; Canada's third TV network is now known as CanWest-Global and is controlled by Izzy Asper.
1971 Toronto Ontario - Neil Young returns to Canada for his first concert since pre-stardom days.
1966 NWT - 'The Drum' first issued in English, Inuit, and Loucheux dialect; first newspaper of its kind in the Arctic.
1966 Ontario - Ontario lets federal government take responsibility for Native education, housing, and employment.
1965 Halifax Nova Scotia - Canada part of new NATO anti-submarine destroyer squadron.
1936 Webbwood Ontario - Barbara Hanley elected in the Northern Ontario town of Webbwood; Canada's first woman mayor.
1915 France - Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry go into action in France.
1877 Manitoba - McLean's open the first flour mill in Manitoba; wheat is quickly replacing fur as Manitoba's main product
1845 Stratford Ontario - Protestants and Catholics riot in Stratford following the council election; eighty men fight in the streets
1824 Quebec Quebec - First meeting of Literary and Historical Society of Quebec.
1818 Ontario - Peregrine Maitland 1777-1854 appointed Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada; serves from Aug. 13, 1818 to Aug. 23, 1828
1789 Quebec Quebec - Guy Carleton, Baron Dorchester 1724-1808 founds an agricultural college at Quebec.

End of C/P.

 

[henric]

January 7th 2014 - This Date in History.


Events:C/P.


1325 – Alfonso IV becomes King of Portugal.
1558 – France takes Calais, the last continental possession of England.
1608 – Fire destroys Jamestown, Virginia.
1610 – Galileo Galilei makes his first observation of the four Galilean moons: Ganymede, Callisto, Io and Europa, although he is not able distinguish the last two until the following day.
1782 – The first American commercial bank, the Bank of North America, opens.
1785 – Frenchman Jean-Pierre Blanchard and American John Jeffries travel from Dover, England, to Calais, France, in a gas balloon.
1797 – The modern Italian flag is first used.
1835 – HMS Beagle drops anchor off the Chonos Archipelago.
1894 – William Kennedy Dickson receives a patent for motion picture film.
1904 – The distress signal "CQD" is established only to be replaced two years later by "SOS".
1919 – Montenegrin guerrilla fighters rebel against the planned annexation of Montenegro by Serbia, but fail.
1920 – The New York State Assembly refuses to seat five duly elected Socialist assemblymen.
1922 – Dáil Éireann ratifies the Anglo-Irish Treaty by a 64-57 vote.
1927 – The first transatlantic telephone service is established – from New York, New York to London, United Kingdom.
1931 – Guy Menzies flies the first solo non-stop trans-Tasman flight (from Australia to New Zealand) in 11 hours and 45 minutes, crash-landing on New Zealand's west coast.
1935 – Benito Mussolini and French Foreign minister Pierre Laval sign the Franco-Italian Agreement.
1940 – Winter War: The Finnish 9th Division stops and completely destroys the overwhelming Soviet forces on the Raate-Suomussalmi road.
1942 – World War II: The siege of the Bataan Peninsula begins.
1945 – World War II: British General Bernard Montgomery holds a press conference in which he claims credit for victory in the Battle of the Bulge.
1948 – Kentucky Air National Guard pilot Thomas Mantell crashes while in pursuit of a supposed UFO.
1954 – Georgetown-IBM experiment: the first public demonstration of a machine translation system, is held in New York at the head office of IBM.
1959 – The United States recognizes the new Cuban government of Fidel Castro.
1960 – The Polaris missile is test launched.
1968 – Surveyor Program: Surveyor 7, the last spacecraft in the Surveyor series, lifts off from launch complex 36A, Cape Canaveral.
1970 – The Punjab Legislative Council (Abolition) Act, 1969 comes into effect.
1973 – Mark Essex fatally shoots 10 people and wounds 13 others at Howard Johnson's Hotel in New Orleans, Louisiana, before being shot to death by police officers.
1979 – Third Indochina War – Cambodian–Vietnamese War: Phnom Penh falls to the advancing Vietnamese troops, driving out Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge.
1980 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter authorizes legislation giving $1.5 billion in loans to bail out the Chrysler Corporation.
1984 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
1985 – Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency launches Sakigake, Japan's first interplanetary spacecraft and the first deep space probe to be launched by any country other than the United States or the Soviet Union.
1989 – Prince Akihito is sworn in as the emperor of Japan after the death of his father Hirohito
1990 – The interior of the Leaning Tower of Pisa is closed to the public for safety reasons.
1991 РRoger Lafontant, former leader of the Tonton Macoute in Haiti under Fran̤ois Duvalier, attempts a coup d'̩tat, which ends in his arrest.
1993 – The Fourth Republic of Ghana is inaugurated with Jerry Rawlings as President.
1993 – Bosnian War: The Bosnian Army executes a surprise attack on the village of Kravica in Srebrenica.
1999 – The Senate trial in the impeachment of U.S. President Bill Clinton begins.
2010 – Muslim gunmen in Egypt open fire on a crowd of Coptic Christians, killing eight of them and one Muslim bystander.
2012 – A hot air balloon crashes near Carterton, New Zealand, killing all 11 people on board.






Today's Canadian Headline...


1955 TV CAMERAS FIRST ENTER PARLIAMENT
Ottawa Ontario - The Speech from the Throne and the opening ceremonies of the Canadian Parliament are broadcast live on television for the first time.

1691
Quebec Quebec - Louis de Buade et de Palluau, Comte de Frontenac 1622-1698 is forced to issue card money to pay the troops in the Quebec garrison, due to the non-arrival of a supply ship.


In Other Events...

1996 Ontario - Blizzard kills two Ontario men in separate traffic accidents; two-day storm blamed for at least 100 deaths in north-eastern US, worst to hit the region in 70 years.
1986 Kingston Ontario - Chris Clifford of the Kingston Canadians the first goalie in the Ontario Hockey League to score a goal; in 53 year history of the OHL.
1984 Medicine Hat Alberta - Train wreck near Medicine Hat releases dangerous gases, forcing evacuation of 800 people.
1983 Toronto Ontario - Ontario seizes assets of Greymac Trust Company, Crown Trust Company, and Seaway Trust Company, owned by Leonard Rosenberg.
1981 Los Angeles California - Marcel Dionne of the NHL Kings scores his 1,000th point with a goal in a 5-3 victory over the Hartford Whalers.
1974 Ottawa Ontario - Bora Laskin 1912- sworn in as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, succeeding Joseph-Honoré-Gérald Fauteux 1900-.
1971 Ottawa Ontario - US-owned Mercantile Bank of Canada to begin program to have at least 75% Canadian ownership by 1980.
1969 Manitoba - 600 Indians and Metis protest Manitoba Hydro project calling for a 10.7m (35-foot) increase in water level.
1966 Africa - Canada sends emergency food supplies to drought-stricken Zambia, Rhodesia, Bechuanaland, Basutoland; together with Britain and Australia
1963 Manitoba - Manitoba awards contracts for Red River Floodway, largest earth-moving job ever undertaken in Canada; called 'Duff's Ditch'
1960 Quebec - Antonio Barrette 1899-1968 becomes Premier of Quebec on the death of Paul Sauvé.
1925 Montreal Quebec - Harry Broadbent of the NHL Montreal Maroons scores five goals in a 6-2 victory over Hamilton.
1920 Toronto Ontario - Joe Malone of the Quebec Bulldogs scores two goals, leading his team to a 4-3 victory over the Toronto Arenas. Malone becomes the NHL's all-time leading goal scorer to that date with 59.
1902 Toronto Ontario - Toronto Mining Exchange Ltd. changes name to Standard Stock and Mining Exchange Ltd..
1896 Ottawa Ontario - Mackenzie Bowell 1823-1917 loses seven members of his Cabinet, as half resign in opposition to his leadership.
1867 Quebec - Private Timothy O'Hea is awarded the Victoria Cross for his bravery in 1866, protecting the lives of 800 emigrants on a Grand Trunk train menaced by a fire in a boxcar carrying explosives. This is the only VC awarded for a brave deed not done in the face of the enemy.
1859 Montreal Quebec - First Canadian silver coins issued.
1839 London Ontario - Crown executes rebels Hiram Lynn, Daniel Bedford, Albert Clark, Cornelius Cunningham, Joshua Doan and A Perley.
1836 Toronto Ontario - William Lyon Mackenzie 1795-1861 loses his Assembly seat in a rowdy, corrupt election; Tories win majority; Bidwell also loses
1799 Quebec Quebec - Founding of the Quebec Library.
1756 Halifax Nova Scotia - Charles Lawrence appointed Governor of Nova Scotia; serves from July 23 to September 24, 1761.
1608 Port Royal Nova Scotia - Jean de Biencourt, Baron de Poutrincourt 1557-1615 gets Port Royal grant reconfirmed; De Monts' trading monopoly extended for one year; one ship to go to Port-Royal, one to the St. Lawrence, one with Champlain to Quebec.

End of C/P.

 

[henric]

January 8th 2014 - This Date in History.


Events:C/P.


307 – Jin Huidi, Chinese Emperor of the Jin Dynasty, is poisoned and succeeded by his son Jin Huaidi.
871 – Alfred the Great leads a West Saxon army to repel an invasion by Danelaw Vikings.
1297 РFran̤ois Grimaldi, disguised as a monk, leads his men to capture the fortress protecting the Rock of Monaco, establishing his family as the rulers of Monaco.
1455 – The Romanus Pontifex is written.
1499 – Louis XII of France marries Anne of Brittany.
1697 – Last execution for blasphemy in Britain; of Thomas Aikenhead, student, at Edinburgh.
1734 – Premiere performance of George Frideric Handel's Ariodante at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.
1746 – Second Jacobite Rising: Bonnie Prince Charlie occupies Stirling.
1790 – George Washington delivers the first State of the Union address in New York, New York.
1806 – Cape Colony becomes a British colony.
1811 – An unsuccessful slave revolt is led by Charles Deslondes in St. Charles and St. James, Louisiana.
1815 – War of 1812: Battle of New Orleans – Andrew Jackson leads American forces in victory over the British.
1835 – The United States national debt is zero for the only time.
1863 – American Civil War: Second Battle of Springfield
1867 – African American men are granted the right to vote in Washington, D.C.
1877 – Crazy Horse and his warriors fight their last battle against the United States Cavalry at Wolf Mountain, Montana Territory.
1889 – Herman Hollerith is issued US patent #395,791 for the 'Art of Applying Statistics'—his punched card calculator.
1904 – The Blackstone Library is dedicated, marking the beginning of the Chicago Public Library system.
1906 – A landslide in Haverstraw, New York, caused by the excavation of clay along the Hudson River, kills 20 people.
1912 – The African National Congress is founded.
1918 – President Woodrow Wilson announces his "Fourteen Points" for the aftermath of World War I.
1920 – The steel strike of 1919 ends in a complete failure for the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel and Tin Workers labor union.
1940 – World War II: Britain introduces food rationing.
1945 – World War II: Philippine Commonwealth troops under the Philippine Commonwealth Army units enter the province of Ilocos Sur in Northern Luzon and attack Japanese Imperial forces.
1956 – Operation Auca: Five U.S. missionaries are killed by the Huaorani of Ecuador shortly after making contact with them.
1961 – In France a referendum supports Charles de Gaulle's policies in Algeria.
1962 – The Harmelen train disaster killed 93 people in the Netherlands.
1964 – President Lyndon B. Johnson declares a "War on Poverty" in the United States.
1971 – Bowing to international pressure, President of Pakistan Zulfikar Ali Bhutto releases Bengali leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman from prison, who had been arrested after declaring the independence of Bangladesh.
1973 – Soviet space mission Luna 21 is launched.
1973 – Watergate scandal: The trial of seven men accused of illegal entry into Democratic Party headquarters at Watergate begins.
1975 – Ella T. Grasso becomes Governor of Connecticut, the first woman to serve as a Governor in the United States other than by succeeding her husband.
1977 – Three bombs explode in Moscow, Russia, Soviet Union within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group.
1979 – The tanker Betelgeuse explodes in Bantry Bay, Ireland.
1981 – A local farmer reports a UFO sighting in Trans-en-Provence, France, claimed to be "perhaps the most completely and carefully documented sighting of all time".
1982 – The break up of AT&T: AT&T agrees to divest itself of twenty-two subdivisions.
1989 – Kegworth air disaster: British Midland Flight 92, a Boeing 737-400, crashes into the M1 motorway, killing 47 of the 126 people on board.
1989 – Beginning of Japanese Heisei period.
1994 – Russian cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov on Soyuz TM-18 leaves for Mir. He would stay on the space station until March 22, 1995, for a record 437 days in space.
1996 – An Antonov An-32 cargo aircraft crashes into a crowded market in Kinshasa, Zaire, killing up to 237 on the ground; the aircraft's crew of 6 survive the crash.
2002 – President George W. Bush signs into law the No Child Left Behind Act.
2003 – Turkish Airlines Flight 634 crashes near Diyarbakır Airport, Turkey, killing the entire crew and 70 of 75 passengers.
2003 – US Airways Express Flight 5481 crashes at Charlotte-Douglas Airport, Charlotte, North Carolina, killing all 21 people on board.
2004 – The RMS Queen Mary 2, the largest passenger ship ever built, is christened by her namesake's granddaughter, Queen Elizabeth II.
2005 – The nuclear sub USS San Francisco collides at full speed with an undersea mountain south of Guam. One man is killed, but the sub surfaces and is repaired.
2009 – A 6.1-magnitude earthquake in northern Costa Rica kills 15 people and injures 32.
2010 – Gunmen from an offshoot the Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda attacked the bus carrying the Togo national football team on its way to the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations, killing three.
2011 – The attempted assassination of Arizona Representative Gabrielle Giffords and subsequent shooting in Casas Adobes, Arizona at a Safeway grocery store, for which Jared Lee Loughner is subsequently arrested, kills six people and wounds 13, including Giffords.






Today's Canadian Headline...


1941 OTTAWA TO REGISTER JAPANESE CANADIANS
Vancouver BC - Federal Minister Ian Mackenzie announces that the RCMP will be registering all Japanese Canadians in British Columbia; a national security matter under the War Measures Act. They are later moved inland to detention camps.

1948

Ottawa Ontario - William Lyon Mackenzie King 1874-1950 sets record as longest serving Prime Minister in the Commonwealth, with 7,825 days in office; Canada's 10th Prime Minister.


In Other Events...


1996 Toronto Ontario - Fisheries Minister Brian Tobin announces he is quitting federal politics to run for the job of provincial Liberal leader and Premier of Newfoundland. He will be the only candidate to replace Clyde Wells.
1991 Ottawa Ontario - Keith Spicer's federally-funded Citizen's Forum on Canada's Future launches its first satellite town hall meeting, people from Vancouver to Saint John, New Brunswick commenting.
1990 Caracas Venezuela - Canada formally joins the Organization of American States (OAS) as its 33rd member.
1982 Ottawa Ontario - Statistics Canada reports Canada's unemployment rate at 987,000 or 8.6% of the work force; highest since figures first taken in 1946
1976 Canada - Canada, US, USSR, Sweden, Finland and Czechoslovakia agree to take part in Canada Cup hockey tournament.
1968 United Nations New York - Canada pledges $21.6 million to UN's world food program for 1969 and 1970 at FAO conference..
1964 Ottawa Ontario - Ottawa grants $2,500,000 to eight provinces for cultural centres similar to Charlottetown and Quebec.
1964 Quebec - Roger Brossard appointed to investigate 1956 trial and execution of Wilbert Coffin; Royal Commissioner
1961 Portland England - British police arrest Canadian George Lonsdale and four others for spying at the Royal Navy base in Portland.
1954 Sarnia Ontario - First Alberta crude oil reaches Sarnia through pipeline from Edmonton.
1948 United Nations New York USA - A.G.L. Andy McNaughton 1887-1966 appointed permanent delegate to United Nations, and Canada's representative on UN Security Council.
1947 Toronto Ontario - Toronto Maple Leaf rookie Howie Meeker scores 5 goals in an NHL game.
1943 Manitoba - Stewart Sinclair Garson 1898-1964 succeeds John Bracken as Premier of Manitoba.
1870 Ottawa Ontario - Government ends issuing of licences to American fishing vessels; operating since end of reciprocity in 1866.
1869 Queenston Ontario - First suspension bridge over the Niagara Gorge at Niagara Falls was opened to traffic.
1838 Amherstburg Ontario - Edward Theller 1804-1859 fires on Fort Malden from vessel 'Anne', while Thomas Sutherland occupies Bois Blanc Island; US sympathizers of rebels called Hunter's Lodges

End of C/P.