Today in History

In 1505, future church reformer, Martin Luther entered the Augustinian monastic order at Erfurt in present day eastern Germany. He was 21.

In 1674, the second census of Canada showed a population of 6,705.

In 1821, Spain ceded Florida to the United States.

In 1897, the world officially learned of the Yukon's Klondike gold strike when miners arrived by ship in San Francisco with suitcases and boxes full of gold. Thousands began to book passages north after the miners spread tales of fortunes waiting to be made. Gold had been discovered the previous August on a tributary of the Klondike River.

In 1917, the Royal Family adopted the name Windsor, giving up all German titles and the dynastic names of Saxe-coburg-gotha.

In 1918, the last Russian Czar Nicholas II, along with his entire family and their servants, were shot by the Bolsheviks in the cellar of their residence in Ekaterinburg.

In 1936, the Spanish civil war began with an army revolt.

In 1938, pilot Douglas Corrigan took off from New York for a flight to California. He landed in Dublin, Ireland, and earned the nickname “Wrong-way Corrigan.”

In 1949, an estimated 20 million Chinese were reported homeless as a result of floods.

In 1951, King Leopold III abdicated in favor of his son Baudouin, who became fifth king of Belgium.

In 1955, Arco, India, became the first community in the world to derive all its light and power from atomic energy.

In 1955, Disneyland opened in Anaheim, Calif. In 1959, the Canadian government formed the Emergency Measures Organization to deal with the possibility of a nuclear attack. Among the civil defence group's projects were facilities for determining nuclear damage and conveying fallout warnings to the public.

In 1959, in Tanzania, a skull estimated to be 1.75 million years old was uncovered by Mary Leakey. The so-called ``missing link'' established Africa, rather than Asia, as the location of the beginnings of homo sapiens.

In 1973, a coup in Afghanistan overthrew King Mohammed Zahir Shah.

In 1975, an “Apollo” spacecraft docked with a “Soyuz” vessel in orbit in the first superpower linkup of its kind.

In 1976, Canada's first Olympic Games opened in Montreal. The opening ceremony was attended by Queen Elizabeth, Princess Anne and her thenhusband, Capt. Mark Phillips. The city had won the right to host the Games, beating Moscow and Los Angeles with its bid. Canada won five silver and six bronze medals, becoming the first host country of the Summer Games not to win a gold medal. (Canada also failed to win a gold medal in the 1988 Winter Games in Calgary but won 14 in Vancouver in 2010.)

In 1978, Canada and the U.S. agreed to let Canadians in American jails and Americans in Canadian prisons go home to finish their sentences.

In 1981, 113 people died when two concrete sky bridges in a courtyard of the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Kansas City, Mo., collapsed onto a ballroom full of dancers.

In 1989, the B2 stealth bomber, designed to evade enemy radar, completed its first flight.

In 1995, 45-year-old Christine Silverberg was selected chief of the Calgary Police Service, the first female police chief of a major Canadian city.

In 1996, a TWA jumbo jet exploded in a fireball shortly after takeoff from JFK Airport in New York and crashed into the Atlantic Ocean, killing all 230 people on board.

In 1997, K.R. Narayanan, a member of the opposition Congress Party, was elected president of India. It was the first time a member of India's lowest class held the office.

In 1998, on the 80th anniversary of the execution of the Russian royal family by the Bolsheviks, the bones of Czar Nicholas II, his wife, daughters and servants were laid to rest at St. Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg, Russia. The sombre ceremony was attended by President Boris Yeltsin, the czar's relatives, diplomats and Prince Michael of Kent.

In 2000, the German government and more than 3,000 companies agreed to pay $7.1 billion to slave and forced labourers of the Nazi war machine. About one million people were eligible for compensation, including about 30,000 Canadians.

In 2001, Canadian Alliance Leader Stockwell Day asked his party to hold a leadership contest. At the convention in April 2002, Stephen Harper defeated Day.

In 2003, the main rebel factions in the Democratic Republic of Congo inaugurated a new power-sharing government headed by President Joseph Kabila and four vice-presidents created to end the country's nearly five-year-long civil war.

In 2004, Canadian satellite company Telesat successfully launched Anik F2 into orbit, the world's largest commercial communications satellite that would allow blanket high-speed service across North America.

In 2005, Tiger Woods won his second British Open golf championship, at St. Andrews, Scotland. Woods joined Jack Nicklaus as the only golfers to win each of the four majors more than once. (In 2008, Woods' U.S. Open victory also tied him with Nicklaus as the only golfer to win all four majors three times.)

In 2006, ferocious wind storms swept across Ontario, killing two people and cutting power to more than 170,000 homes and businesses.

In 2006, a 7.7-magnitude undersea earthquake triggered a tsunami on Indonesia's Java island, killing at least 668 people and causing extensive damage to hotels, restaurants and homes.

In 2007, at least 189 people died, including people on the ground, after a Brazilian airliner overshot a rain-slicked runway and crashed into a gas station at Sao Palo airport in Brazil's worst air disaster.

In 2007, Rupert Murdoch reached a tentative agreement to buy Wall Street Journal publisher Dow Jones & Co. for his original price of US$5 billion.

In 2007, the Dow Jones Industrial Average nudged above the 14,000-point plateau for the first time.

In 2009, Walter Cronkite, the former CBS anchor known as the “Most Trusted Man in America” died at age 92. Hailed as the “gold standard” for a career that spanned seven decades, Cronkite conveyed to Americans historic events including the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and the landing of the first man on the moon.

In 2009, the space shuttle “Endeavour” carrying Julie Payette docked with the International

Space Station, where Robert Thirsk had been stationed since May, marking the first time two Canadian astronauts had ever worked in space together.

In 2011, Japan became the first Asian nation to win the Women's World Cup, beating the United States in a penalty shootout after both sides were level at 2-2 after extra time.

In 2011, Northern Ireland's Darren Clarke captured his first major championship with a 5-under 275 at the British Open at wet and windy Royal St. George's.

In 2013, 23 children in India died and more than two dozen others were sick after eating a free school lunch that was tainted with insecticide.

In 2013, Britain legalized gay marriage after Queen Elizabeth gave her royal assent, clearing the way for the first same-sex weddings in the summer of 2014.

In 2014, all 298 passengers and crew aboard Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 were killed when the Boeing 777 was shot down by a surface-to-air missile over a rebel-held area in eastern Ukraine. (In 2018, an international team of investigators determined the missile belonged to a Russia-based military unit.)

In 2014, the RCMP laid 31 charges of fraud, breach of trust and bribery against suspended Sen. Mike Duffy involving his claims for living expenses, claims for travel expenses unconnected with Senate business and fraudulent contracts. (In April 2016, he was acquitted of all charges and Senate officials restored his standing in the upper chamber.)

In 2016, Henrik Stenson earned his first major, beating Phil Mickelson by three strokes in an epic duel in the British Open at Royal Troon. Stenson tied a major closing-round record of 8-under and his 20-under 264 was the lowest 72-hole score in major championship history.

(The Canadian Press)