Today in History for Sept. 19:
On this date:
In 1648, Jacques Boisdon opened Canada's first tavern in Quebec City.
In 1654, in the first Canadian marriage on record, 11-year-old Marguerite Sedilot married 20-year-old Jean Aubuchon in Trois-Rivieres, Que. The couple had 16 children.
In 1777, British Gen. John Burgoyne led the first attack on Benedict Arnold and his American forces at Freemans Farm, near Saratoga, N.Y. The Americans repulsed the attack and Burgoyne later surrendered at Saratoga on Oct. 17.
In 1812, Meyer Rothschild, German banker and founder of his family's dynasty, died. He was born in 1743 in Frankfurt.
In 1846, poets Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning were married.
In 1853, Baptist pioneer missionary J. Hudson Taylor set sail from England for China. In 1865, he founded the China Inland Mission, now known as the Overseas Missionary Fellowship.
In 1870, Germany began the siege of Paris in the Franco-Prussian War.
In 1889, a landslide from Citadel Rock in Quebec City killed 45 people.
In 1891, a railway tunnel was opened under the St. Clair River, connecting Ontario and Michigan.
In 1893, New Zealand became the first country to give women the vote.
In 1907, Canada and France signed their first commercial agreement at Paris.
In 1928, Mickey Mouse made his debut in Walt Disney's cartoon feature "Steamboat Willie."
In 1934, Bruno Hauptmann was arrested in New York and charged with the kidnapping and murder of the Lindbergh baby. He was later convicted and executed.
In 1941, Kyiv, capital of Ukraine, fell to the Germans during the Second World War after the death of 600,000 soldiers on both sides.
In 1945, Nazi radio propagandist William Joyce, known as "Lord Haw-Haw," was convicted of treason and sentenced to death by a British court.
In 1955, President Juan Peron of Argentina was ousted after a revolt by the Argentine army and navy. Peron, who became president in 1946, had played a leading role in a government coup three years earlier. As president, he set up a dictatorship and instituted a program of revolutionary and nationalistic measures which were supposed to lead to economic self-sufficiency. By the early 1950s, however, the economy had deteriorated and his support weakened.
In 1957, the United States conducted its first contained underground nuclear test, code-named "Rainier," in the Nevada desert.
In 1968, physicist Chester Carlson, inventor of the Xerox copying process, died. He was 62.
In 1978, the Progressive Conservatives, led by John Buchanan, swept to victory in the Nova Scotia provincial election. The win was the first of four straight victories for Buchanan.
In 1980, Marathon of Hope runner Terry Fox, 22, was made the youngest companion of the Order of Canada.
In 1984, Britain and China issued a joint declaration securing the transfer of Hong Kong from British to Chinese rule by 1997.
In 1985, the Canadian government ordered the seizure of a million cans of tainted tuna. Grocery store chains began removing cans of tuna from shelves amid mounting consumer fears that some cans contained rancid and decomposing fish. Fisheries Minister John Fraser, who had earlier refused to recall the product, resigned on Sept. 23.
In 1985, Mexico City, the world's most populous capital, was hit by a devastating earthquake. It was followed by another major quake the next day. Many buildings, including schools, hospitals and highrises, were destroyed and at least 9,500 people were killed. Canada immediately set aside $1 million in emergency aid to help victims of the quakes.
In 1986, American officials announced that an experimental drug had prolonged the lives of some people with AIDS. The drug, azidothymidine or AZT, had first been synthesized in the 1960s, when it was hoped to be used to fight cancer.
In 1988, the American Senate ratified the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement by a vote of 83-to-9. The vote marked the last step in the American legislative approval process. The agreement, aimed at eliminating trade barriers, began taking effect the following January.
In 1989, the U.S. Library of Congress announced the first 25 of 75 films named to the new national film registry. The registry was established to get high-quality copies of films to make sure they would be preserved. The first group included "Gone With The Wind," "The Maltese Falcon" and "Citizen Kane."
In 2000, Reform party leader Stockwell Day was sworn in as leader of the Official Opposition, and Joe Clark, the former Conservative prime minister, returned to the House of Commons after seven years.
In 2003, in a landmark ruling, the Supreme Court of Canada said that the Metis are a distinct aboriginal group with a constitutional right to hunt for food.
In 2005, Canada and Denmark agreed on a process to resolve their territorial dispute over Hans Island, an uninhabited Arctic rock between Ellesmere Island and Greenland.
In 2005, North Korea agreed to drop its nuclear weapons development program and rejoin international arms treaties.
In 2005, Paul Coffin, the first person to be criminally convicted in the federal sponsorship scandal, was sentenced to two years less a day, to be served in the community by speaking out publicly about business ethics and the story of his downfall.
In 2005, former Tyco International Ltd. boss Dennis Kozlowski and former Tyco finance chief Mark Swartz were each sentenced to jail terms of up to 25 years for looting the company coffers. They were also ordered to pay a combined $240 million in fines and restitution.
In 2007, Ontario's Superior Court struck down the province's controversial adoption information disclosure law as unconstitutional only two days after it went into effect.
In 2007, Canada formalized a landmark $1.9-billion compensation deal for an estimated 80,000 former students of 130 residential schools run by churches and funded by the federal government from the 1870s until the mid-1970s, for the sexual, physical and psychological abuse they endured.
In 2008, baseball's new instant replay system produced its first reversal when Tampa Bay's Carlos Pena had a two-run double changed to a three-run homer during the fourth inning of a game against Minnesota.
In 2009, Wally Buono became the winningest coach in CFL history, collecting his 232nd career win to surpass Don Matthews, as the B.C. Lions defeated the Toronto Argonauts 23-17.
In 2010, retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the U.S government's point man on the BP disaster, announced that the company's well was "effectively dead'' and posed no further threat to the Gulf of Mexico. Following the April 20 explosion that sunk a drilling rig and killed 11 workers, the well spewed an estimated 780 million litres of oil into the Gulf, making it the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history.
In 2015, Jackie Collins, the bestselling author of dozens of novels including "Hollywood Wives" that dramatized the lifestyles of the rich and the treacherous, died of breast cancer. She was 77.
In 2017, Toys "R" Us Canada initiated bankruptcy proceedings in an Ontario court a day after it filed for creditor protection in the U.S.
In 2017, a magnitude-7.1 quake struck central Mexico, collapsing buildings in plumes of dust and killing at least 369 people, with 228 deaths occurring in Mexico City. It happened on the 32nd anniversary of the 1985 earthquake that killed thousands.
In 2017, Jake LaMotta, the former middleweight champion whose life in and out of the ring was depicted in the film "Raging Bull," for which Robert De Niro won an Academy Award, died at age 95.
In 2018, the leaders of North and South Korea announced a wide range of agreements that they said were a major step toward peace on the Korean Peninsula. But Kim Jong Un said he would only permanently dismantle his main nuclear complex if the United States took corresponding measures.
In 2019, an Alberta mother and father who treated their ill son with herbal remedies rather than get him medical attention were acquitted in the boy's death. A judge in Lethbridge ruled that David and Collet Stephan were not guilty of failing to provide the necessities of life to 19-month-old Ezekiel, who died in 2012. The medical examiner who did the autopsy testified that Ezekiel died of bacterial meningitis, but a pathologist called by the defence said the child died from a lack of oxygen to the brain when he was in an ambulance.
In 2020, former Liberal prime minister John Turner died at the age of 91. Dubbed "Canada's Kennedy'' when he first arrived in Ottawa in the 1960s, Turner held the office of prime minister for just 79 days — the second shortest term in Canadian history. He gave up the leadership of the Liberal party in June 1990, to be succeeded by Jean Chretien.
In 2020, Quebec Premier Francois Legault said he tested negative for COVID-19. In a message posted to his Facebook page, Legault said he would remain in isolation until Sept. 28.
In 2020, the Mounties said an intercepted letter laced with the poison ricin, and meant for the White House, may have originated in Canada. American officials said there was no threat to the public.
In 2020, Nunavut reported its first confirmed cases of COVID-19. The territory's chief public health officer said there were two cases at the Hope Bay gold mine 125 kilometres southwest of Cambridge Bay. Dr. Michael Patterson said both miners were exposed in their home jurisdictions.
In 2021, "The Crown'' was the winner of the best drama series Emmy Award, giving Netflix its first top series win. Netflix won a leading total of 44 awards, equalling the broadcast network record set back in 1974, by CBS.
In 2022, Queen Elizabeth's coffin was taken to Windsor Castle from Westminster Abbey on a last procession through the heart of London. Members of the RCMP and representatives of the Canadian Armed Forces joined military members from around the Commonwealth at Westminster Abbey for the procession following the state funeral. The Queen was buried at St. George's Chapel alongside her husband, Prince Philip.
In 2023, Canada ordered an Indian diplomat to leave the country after Prime Minster Justin Trudeau revealed there is credible intelligence linking agents of India's government to the shooting death of a Sikh leader near Vancouver. Hardeep Singh Nijjar was killed in the parking lot of his gurdwara in Surrey, B-C, on June 18 2023.
In 2023, Quebec's Anticosti Island, located in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, was recognized as a UNESCO world heritage site. According to UNESCO's website, Quebec's largest island is the most complete and best preserved paleontological record of the first mass extinction of animal life, between 447 million and 437 million years ago.
In 2023, a Humboldt Broncos bus crash survivor won "The Amazing Race Canada." Ty Smith and his girlfriend, Kat Kastner of Calgary, won a $250,000 prize, as well as a round-the-world trip and two Chevrolet trucks. The couple, who were both 25, said they were competing for all those affected by the 2018 tragedy that left 16 people dead and 13 others injured after a semi crashed with a bus carrying the junior hockey team in Saskatchewan.
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The Canadian Press