TODAY IN HISTORY: Hendrix found dead
In 1970, Jimi Hendrix, rock music’s most innovative guitarist in the late 1960s, was found dead in a London apartment at age 27. He had left the message “I need help bad, man” on his manager Chas
Chandler’s answering machine. The coroner said Hendrix choked on his own vomit after barbituate intoxication. The Seattle native first gained fame in Britain in early 1967, when “Hey Joe” reached No. 6 on the British chart.
In 1851, the New York Times was published for the first time.
In 1895, John Diefenbaker, Tory prime minister from 1957-63, was born in Neustadt, Ont. He died Aug. 16, 1979.
In 1928, the Graf Zeppelin, considered the finest airship ever built, had its first flight. It flew more miles than any airship had done to that time or would in the future.
In 1931, the Japanese army invaded Manchuria in northern China.
In 1975, American newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst was captured by the FBI in San Francisco, 19 months after she was kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army.
In 1981, British rocker Gary Numan set out from London to fly his single-engine plane around the world. He was later forced to land over an Indian military installation and was arrested on suspicion of espionage. The “Cars” singer was released after a short time.
In 1984, thousands of aboriginal Canadians were disappointed when heavy fog prevented Pope John Paul from visiting them at Fort Simpson, N.W.T. The Pope kept a promise to visit them when he held mass in Fort Simpson on Sept. 20, 1987.
In 1987, the United States and the Soviet Union agreed to eliminate intermediaterange nuclear weapons from their arsenals.
In 1989, Ontario NDP Premier Bob Rae was among 15 people arrested during an anti-logging protest near a stand of oldgrowth pines at Temagami in northern Ontario.
In 1992, nine miners were killed in a violent explosion inside the strike-torn Giant gold mine in Yellowknife, N.W.T. RCMP believed the explosion was deliberately set. A miner, Roger Warren, was later convicted of first-degree murder.
In 2009, CBS aired the final episode of the soap opera “Guiding Light” after a 72year run that predated television.
In 2001, Ernie Coombs, CBC television’s beloved “Mr. Dressup” who retired in 1996 after 31 years on the air, died at age 73.
In 2018, Nova Scotia introduced legislation to make the funeral home industry more accountable after a woman’s remains were mistakenly cremated when a home in the Annapolis Valley mixed up the bodies of two women who died a day apart.