Today in History for Nov. 19:
In 1794, the United States and Britain signed the "Jay Treaty" concerning trade boundaries and commerce.
In 1858, the Crown Colony of British Columbia was formally proclaimed by Vancouver Island Governor James Douglas at the Hudson's Bay Company trading post of Fort Langley. Britain united the colonies of British Columbia and Vancouver Island eight years later.
In 1863, U.S. President Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address as he dedicated a national cemetery at the site of the Civil War battlefield in Pennsylvania.
In 1867, the British government rejected a request that British Columbia be allowed to join Confederation.
In 1869, the first of two Metis rebellions under Louis Riel broke out in the Red River Colony, now Manitoba. The Metis were alarmed at the possibility of mass immigration by Canadians when the Hudson's Bay Company handed over the colony to the government of Canada. The Red River Uprising led to the formation the following year of the province of Manitoba. After a few years in exile, Riel led the failed Northwest Rebellion of 1885 but was captured, convicted of treason and hanged.
In 1874, the Women's Christian Temperance Union was founded in Cleveland.
In 1906, Niagara Falls began to provide electric power to Toronto.
In 1910, Pentecostal missionaries Daniel Berg and Adolf Vingren of Sweden arrived in Brazil. Eight years later they established Brazil's first Pentecostal church, the forerunner to the Assemblies of God, the country's largest Protestant body.
In 1918, an order-in-council united government railways, leading to the creation of Canadian National Railways. The five individual railways -- the Grand Trunk and its subsidiary, the Grand Trunk Pacific, the Intercolonial, the Canadian Northern and the National Transcontinental -- had all been financed by heavy borrowing from English banks. When the First World War diverted the banks' credit, the Canadian government had to nationalize them.
In 1919, the U.S. Senate rejected the "Treaty of Versailles" by a vote of 55 in favour, 39 against, short of the two-thirds majority needed for ratification.
In 1942, during the Second World War, Russian forces launched their winter offensive against the Germans along the Don front.
In 1954, the United States and Canada announced the construction of a radar warning system across northern Canada.
In 1959, the Ford Motor Company announced it was halting production of the Edsel, a medium-priced automobile that proved to be a poor seller.
In 1961, businessman and sports promoter Thomas F. Ryan, who's credited with inventing five-pin bowling in 1909, died in Toronto at age 89. After introducing 10-pin bowling to Canada, Ryan introduced the smaller ball and pins following complaints from his clientele about arm strain.
In 1969, "Apollo 12" astronauts Charles Conrad and Alan Bean made the second manned landing on the moon.
In 1969, the Canadian scientific vessel "Hudson" left Halifax on an 11-month voyage of the Atlantic, Antarctic, Pacific and Arctic oceans to examine currents and resources.
In 1977, Egyptian president Anwar Sadat became the first Arab leader to visit Israel.
In 1983, Bruce Hood became the first NHL referee to officiate in 1,000 games.
In 1984, a series of massive explosions in a complex of natural gas storage tanks north of Mexico City killed 452 people and injured 2,000.
In 1985, U.S. President Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev met for the first time as they began their summit in Geneva.
In 1988, billionaire heiress Christina Onassis died at the age of 37.
In 1990, NATO and the Warsaw Pact signed a treaty on conventional armed forces in Europe. They also signed a non-aggression declaration. Under the treaty, more than 100,000 pieces of military hardware would be scrapped, prompting some to call the pact the formal end of the Cold War.
In 1993, Toronto-born Reverend Victoria Mathews was elected assistant bishop in Toronto -- the first woman to become an Anglican bishop in Canada.
In 1995, the Baltimore Stallions became the only American-based team to win the Grey Cup. The Stallions beat the Calgary Stampeders 37-20 in the CFL final in Regina.
In 1996, the United States vetoed Boutros Boutros-Ghali for re-election as secretary general of United Nations.
In 1997, Bobbi McCaughey of Carlisle, Iowa, gave birth to the first septuplets in recorded history to survive more than a month.
In 1997, about 45,000 postal workers, members of Canadian Union of Postal Workers, walked off the job across the country over issues of job security, wages and changes to letter carriers' routes, one hour before a threatened lockout of the union by Canada Post. It was the country's first mail stoppage in six years.
In 2001, Nelson Mandela became the first living recipient of honorary Canadian citizenship. The former South African president was honoured at a ceremony at the Museum of Civilization in Hull, Que.
In 2002, B.C.'s conflict commissioner's report concluded that former premier Glen Clark broke conflict of interest rules when he accepted free home renovations from a neighbour seeking a provincial casino licence in 1999.
In 2002, billionaire Ken Thomson made a $370 million donation in cash and art to the Art Gallery of Ontario and said he would donate in trust an estimated 2,000 works to the AGO.
In 2003, the Ontario legislative assembly picked Alvin Curling as its first black Speaker.
In 2006, the B.C. Lions defeated the Montreal Alouettes 25-14 in the Grey Cup. The trophy was broken during the celebrations.
In 2009, Emrah Bulatci was convicted of first-degree murder in the shooting death of RCMP Const. Chris Worden in Hay River, N.W.T., on Oct. 6, 2007.
In 2009, Hamid Karzai was inaugurated Afghanistan president for a second five-year term amid doubts over his legitimacy after an election tainted by fraud.
In 2010, Pat Burns, the only man to win the Adams Trophy as the NHL's top coach with three different teams - Montreal (1989), Toronto (1993) and Boston (1998) - died after a long battle with cancer. He was 58.
In 2010, a gas explosion ripped through the Pike River coal mine in New Zealand. Five workers stumbled to the surface while 29 others were missing. (After a second explosion four days later, the rescuers changed their mission to that of a recovery.)
In 2013, the Disney animated feature "Frozen" had its Hollywood premiere. It went on to gross $1.27 billion worldwide, making it the highest-grossing animated feature of all time.
In 2017, Della Reese, the actress and gospel-influenced singer who in middle age found her greatest fame as Tess, the wise angel in the long-running television drama "Touched by an Angel," died at age 86.
In 2017, Charles Manson, the hippie cult leader who became the hypnotic-eyed face of evil across America after orchestrating the gruesome murders of pregnant actress Sharon Tate and six others in Los Angeles during the summer of 1969, died after nearly a half-century in prison. He was 83.
In 2017, the Ontario government passed back-to-work legislation, ending a five-week college faculty strike and allowing nearly 500,000 students to return to class. The 12,000 professors, instructors, counsellors and librarians had been on strike since Oct. 15.
In 2018, Toronto police announced six boys aged 14 and 15 years old had been charged in an alleged sexual assault at St. Michael's College School that appeared to be related to hazing. The accused were charged with assault, gang assault and sexual assault with a weapon.
In 2019, it was announced two correctional officers on duty the night before wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein was found dead in a Manhattan prison faced charges of falsifying prison records. Toval Noel and Michael Thomas were accused of neglecting their duties by failing to perform checks on Epstein every 30-minutes and of fabricating log entries to show they had. Epstein was put on suicide watch as he awaited trial on charges he sexually abused underage girls.
In 2020, a team of scientists from Oxford University and drugmaker AstraZeneca said their COVID-19 vaccine shows a robust immune response in healthy adults aged 56-69 and people over 70. Phase 2 study results found the vaccine is as effective for older people as it is for the younger demographic, and that it produced few side effects.
In 2020, RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki insisted there is no room in the federal police force for hateful, misogynistic or homophobic attitudes. Her comments came after an independent report found the force's "toxic" culture tolerates such attitudes. The report from former Supreme Court justice Michel Bastarache concludes that change must be initiated from outside the RCMP, and it's past time for the federal government to take meaningful and radical action.
In 2020, newly released data on emergency COVID-19 aid showed some of the country's highest income earners used a key benefit for workers. Figures from the Canada Revenue Agency show nearly 115,000 people who earned between about $100,000 and $200,000 last year applied for the $2,000-a-month Canada Emergency Response Benefit.
In 2021, Conservative senators chose to keep expelled Sen. Denise Batters in their fold, despite party leader Erin O'Toole's decision to kick her out of the national caucus after she challenged his leadership.
In 2021, Health Canada approved the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for children aged five to 11.
In 2021, a Wisconsin jury acquitted 18-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse of all charges after close to three and a half days of deliberations. Rittenhouse had pleaded self-defence after shooting and killing two men and wounding another with an AR-style semi-automatic rifle during a night of protests over police violence in August 2020.
In 2021, the federal government confirmed that as of Nov. 30, fully vaccinated Canadians and permanent residents visiting the United States for less than 72 hours wouldn't need a costly molecular COVID-19 test in order to return home.
In 2021, Ontario Sen. Josee Forest-Niesing died following a battle with COVID-19. She was 56. The Sudbury senator returned home after being admitted to hospital with the virus but was considered vulnerable due to an autoimmune condition that had affected her lungs for the last 15 years and reduced her vaccine's effectiveness. She had represented Ontario in the Senate since October 2018.
In 2022, the actor who played the Green Power Ranger Tommy Oliver on the 1990s children's series "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers,'' died. Jason David Frank was 49. The martial arts practitioner also played Tommy Oliver in two films and made a cameo in the 2017 reboot "Power Rangers.''
In 2023, the Montreal Alouettes beat the Winnipeg Blue Bombers to win the 110th Grey Cup, held in Hamilton, Ont. The band Green Day performed at half time.
----
The Canadian Press