Today in History for April 13:
In 655 (traditional date), Martin, pope from 649 to 655, died in banishment. He was the last pope venerated as a martyr.
In 1598, King Henry IV of France endorsed the ``Edict of Nantes,'' which granted rights to the Protestant Huguenots. The edict was abrogated in 1685 by King Louis XIV, who declared France entirely Catholic again.
In 1742, George Frideric Handel's majestic oratorio, ``The Messiah,'' was first performed, in Dublin. The performance raised 400 pounds for charity.
In 1743, the third president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson, was born in Shadwell, Va.
In 1829, the British Parliament passed the ``Emancipation Act,'' granting freedom of religion to Roman Catholics. Within three weeks, the first Catholic was elected to Parliament.
In 1852, Frank Winfield Woolworth, founder of the dime store chain, was born in Rodman, N.Y. He died in 1919.
In 1859, the University of New Brunswick was incorporated.
In 1869, American industrialist George Westinghouse patented the air brake.
In 1900, Ottawa became the first Canadian city to receive telephone service that did not require batteries on home sets.
In 1919, British and Gurkha troops massacred at least 379 unarmed protesters in the Indian holy city of Amritsar. The massacre stirred nationalist feelings across India and caused Mohandas Gandhi to begin his fight for independence.
In 1925, women in Newfoundland were granted the right to vote.
In 1945, Russian leader Josef Stalin announced the capture of Vienna.
In 1961, the UN General Assembly voted to condemn apartheid, South Africa's policy of racial segregation.
In 1964, Sidney Poitier became the first black to win the Oscar for best actor, for ``Lilies of the Field.''
In 1970, the ``Apollo 13'' moon mission was cancelled after an on-board explosion. The three astronauts returned safely to earth four days later.
In 1981, Quebec Premier Rene Levesque and his Parti Quebecois government won a second majority in a provincial election.
In 1981, a Pulitzer Prize was awarded to ``Washington Post'' reporter Janet Cooke for an article about an eight-year-old heroin addict. She relinquished the prize and quit the paper two days later after admitting she fabricated the story.
In 1986, Pope John Paul II visited a Rome synagogue -- the first recorded papal visit of its kind.
In 1986, Jack Nicklaus won his record sixth Masters golf title and became the tournament's oldest winner at age 46. It was also the last of the Golden Bear's 70 PGA Tour wins.
In 1990, the Soviet Union finally admitted responsibility for the 1940 massacre of thousands of Polish officers near Katyn, Poland. German troops found more than 3,000 graves in 1943, but the Soviets had always blamed the slaughter on the Nazis.
In 1992, Princess Anne filed for an uncontested divorce from Captain Mark Phillips. It was granted 10 days later.
In 1992, the ``Great Chicago Flood'' took place as the city's century-old tunnel system and adjacent basements filled with water from the Chicago River.
In 1993, the B.C. government announced it would allow limited logging of the last major old-growth rainforest on Vancouver Island. At least half of Clayoquot Sound was opened to logging.
In 1995, the CBC cancelled ``Front Page Challenge.'' The current events game show had been an institution on Canadian television since 1957.
In 1997, 21-year-old Tiger Woods became the youngest -- and first black -- winner of the Masters golf tournament. Woods also set records with his 270 total and 12-stroke victory margin.
In 1998, ``Dolly,'' the world's first cloned mammal from an adult cell, gave birth in Scotland to her first lamb, named ``Bonnie.''
In 1999, right-to-die advocate Dr. Jack Kevorkian was sentenced in Pontiac, Mich., to 10 to 25 years in prison for second-degree murder in the lethal injection death of a Lou Gehrig's disease patient. Kevorkian ended up serving eight years.
In 2000, a treaty between the federal and British Columbia governments and the Nisga'a people of northwestern B.C. became law. The agreement gave the Nisga'a land, cash and self-government in return for giving up their tax-exempt status and abandoning further claims.
In 2003, Mike Weir of Bright's Grove, Ont., won the Masters -- the first Canadian to win a men's golf major.
In 2003, scientists in Canada announced they had identified the genetic code of the virus suspected of causing SARS -- Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome -- a first step toward a diagnostic test and possible vaccine.
In 2009, Trooper Karine Blais, 21, was killed and four other soldiers were wounded when their armoured personnel carrier was hit by a roadside bomb blast in the Shah Wali Kot district north of Kandahar.
In 2010, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., Northern Brands International Inc. and JTI-Macdonald Corp. shelled out more than half a billion dollars to the federal, provincial and territorial governments to settle suits and pay fines relating to tobacco smuggling in the early 1990s.
In 2011, a federal jury convicted Barry Bonds of a single charge of obstruction of justice, but failed to reach a verdict on the three counts at the heart of allegations that he knowingly used steroids and human growth hormone and lied to a grand jury about it. (In December, he was sentenced to two years' probation and 30 days of house arrest and the conviction was upheld on appeal.)
In 2012, the Supreme Court of Canada unanimously struck down a law that allowed police to immediately start wiretaps in urgent cases without getting a search warrant.
In 2015, Ontario and Quebec signed a cap-and-trade deal to put a price on carbon in an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
In 2020, a former aide to Joe Biden accused the then-presumptive Democratic presidential nominee of sexually assaulting her during the early 1990s when he was a US senator. Tara Reade alleged the assault occurred in the basement of a Capitol Hill office building in the spring of 1993. Biden's campaign denied the charges.
In 2020, Bernie Sanders endorsed Joe Biden's presidential candidacy. The two former rivals made a joint online appearance in which Sanders urged all Americans to come together to support Biden's candidacy.
In 2021, Canada recorded its first case of blood clots in someone who received the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine. Unlike the doses linked to reports of blood clots in Europeans, the vaccine in the Canadian case was produced at the Serum Institute of India.
In 2024, Iran launched its first full-scale military attack against Israel in retaliation for an airstrike widely blamed on Israel that destroyed the Iranian Consulate in Syria. Iran sent more than 300 bomb-carrying drones and missiles toward Israel. Israeli Defence Forces said 99 per cent of them were successfully intercepted by Israel and its strategic allies, including U.S. forces. A small number of hits were identified, including minor damage to an IDF base in southern Israel. A seven-year-old girl was seriously injured in the attack.
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The Canadian Press