Today in History

Today in History for July 21: On this date:

In 1667, the “Treaty of Breda,”which restored Acadia to France, was signed in the Netherlands. The treaty provided for France’s restoration to England of part of the island of St. Christopher’s, West Indies, in exchange for Acadia, captured from the French in 1654 by Britain’s New England forces.

In 1704, Gibraltar was attacked by the British under Sir George Rooke.

In 1773, Pope Clement XIV issued the brief, “Dominus ac redemptor noster,”officially dissolving the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). This politically-based suppression later left conspicuous gaps in Roman Catholic education and foreign missions.

In 1796, Gov. John Graves Simcoe and his family left York (Toronto) for England; he never returned to Upper Canada.

In 1796, Scottish Poet Robert Burns died. He was 37.

In 1797, in the first execution of its type in Canada, American spy David Mclane was publicly hanged, beheaded and disembowelled.

In 1816, Paul Reuter, founder of the Reuters news agency, was born in Kassel, Germany. He died Feb. 25, 1899.

In 1831, Leopold I was proclaimed king of the Belgians.

In 1836, riding on wooden tracks near Montreal, Canada’s first passenger train travelled about 25 kilometres.

In 1873, Jesse James and his gang staged the first train robbery in the United States. They stole $3,000 from a train in Ohio.

In 1886, the cardinal’s hat was conferred upon Elzear Alexandre Taschereau, 66, archbishop of Quebec. He was the first Canadian to be made a cardinal in the Roman Catholic Church.

In 1899, author Ernest Hemingway was born in Oak Park, Ill. Plagued by ill health, he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at his home in Idaho on July 2, 1961.

In 1904, the Trans-siberian railway was completed. It took 13 years to construct the 7,400-km line.

In 1911, communication theorist Marshall Mcluhan, who coined the phrase “the medium is the message,”was born in Edmonton. He died Dec. 31, 1980.

In 1925, the famous “monkey trial”ended in Dayton, Tenn. John T. Scopes was found guilty and fined $100 for teaching Darwin’s theory of evolution. Scopes, who was defended by famed lawyer Clarence Darrow, later had his conviction overturned. The case was portrayed in the film “Inherit the Wind.”

In 1944, American forces landed on

Guam during the Second World War.

In 1959, the United States launched the first nuclear-powered merchant ship, the “N.S. Savannah.”

In 1961, the government-built town of Inuvik, N.W.T., was officially opened. The town, the largest Canadian community north of the Arctic Circle, was constructed to replace the old settlement of Aklavik, which was being threatened by flood and erosion. Located on the Mackenzie River delta, the town’s economy is centred on nearby oil and gas exploration.

In 1961, Captain Virgil “Gus”grissom became the second American to rocket into a sub-orbital pattern around the Earth, flying aboard the “Liberty Bell 7.”

In 1963, Giovanni Battista Montini was elected Pope Paul VI.

In 1969, “Apollo 11”astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz”aldrin blasted off from the moon aboard the ascent stage of the lunar module for docking with the command module.

In 1972, the CRTC approved the creation of a third television network -- Global TV. It was licensed to serve five Ontario cities.

In 1973, Canada ended all ceasefire monitoring activities in Vietnam.

In 1975, a bill creating a federal human rights commission with powers to stop discrimination by businesses under federal jurisdiction was introduced in the Canadian House of Commons. The bill outlawed discrimination by employers on grounds of race, sex, colour, religion, age or marital status.

In 1976, 14-year-old Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci won the all-round gold medal in women’s gymnastics, obtaining perfect scores on the balance beam and the uneven bars.

In 1980, draft registration began across the United States. Nearly four million young men aged 19 and 20 were required to register in a move ordered by President Jimmy Carter as part of a U.S. response to the Soviet drive into Afghanistan.

In 1983, martial law was lifted in Poland after more than 18 months.

In 1984, in the first known death of a human caused by a robot, a factory worker in Jackson, Mich., was crushed against a safety bar.

In 1988, Canada’s War Measures Act of 1914 was set aside when the new Emergencies Act was given royal assent.

In 1989, Donald Brittain, acclaimed film maker who received over 70 international awards, died in Montreal at age 61.

In 1991, pitcher Ferguson Jenkins -- born in Chatham, Ont. -- became the first Canadian member of major league baseball’s Hall of Fame at Cooperstown, N.Y.

In 1998, Canada stepped up its drive to expel war criminals by increasing spending to $46.8 million.

In 2003, Romeo Phillion, who claimed that he was wrongfully convicted of murdering a firefighter in Ottawa in 1972, was released on bail after 31 years in prison while the federal government reviewed his case. In March of 2009, the Ontario Court of Appeal struck down his conviction and ordered a new trial. On April 29, 2010, on his 71st birthday, the Crown officially withdrew the charges. (In 2012, he sued for $14 million but the lawsuit was dismissed by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice. An appeal court then ruled Phillion should at least have a chance to put his case to a jury. In 2015, the Supreme Court of Canada cleared the way for him to sue police when it refused to hear the appeal to block the lawsuit. Phillion died Nov. 2, 2015.)

In 2005, China dropped the yuan’s peg to the U.S. dollar and revalued it 2.1 per cent higher against a basket of unspecified currencies.

In 2005, in an unprecedented move, 122 Canadian imams and other Islamic religious leaders denounced terrorism and vowed to confront religious extremism in a signed declaration in Toronto.

In 2006, two Canadian soldiers, Cpl. Francisco Gomez, 44, and Cpl. Jason Patrick Warren, 29, were killed when their convoy was attacked by suicide bombers near Kandahar, Afghanistan.

In 2008, Radovan Karadzic, 63, the wartime Bosnian Serb leader, was arrested after eluding officials for nearly 13 years. He was accused of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and other atrocities relating to the 1995 massacre and other acts against Muslim, Croat and other non-serb civilians in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the 1992-95 war.

In 2008, a federal appeals court threw out a $550,000 fine against CBS Corp. for the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show that ended with Janet Jackson’s breast-baring “wardrobe malfunction.”

In 2009, the Competition Bureau gave the merger of Suncor Energy Inc. and Petro-canada its stamp of approval, provided the companies sold 104 gas stations in southern Ontario. The merger, the largest in Canadian history, became final on Aug. 1.

In 2010, the head of Statistics Canada, Munir Sheikh, resigned over the Conservative government’s decision to axe the long-census form.

In 2010, ex-media mogul Conrad Black was granted bail on $2 million bond and ordered to remain in the United States. Within hours of the hearing, Black was released from prison in Coleman, Fla. (In 2011, a judge ordered Black back to prison to serve another 13 months.)

In 2010, New Brunswick business magnate John E. (Jack) Irving, who helped expand his family’s empire in the province by leading several construction and engineering companies, died at age 78. Working with Arthur and his other brother James, Jack helped build upon the legacy of their father, K.C. Irving, to expand and develop the Irving Group of companies into a worldwide corporation.

In 2011, the space shuttle Atlantis returned from a re-stocking mission of the International Space Station, bringing an end to NASA’S 30-year program. The shuttle is now on display at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla.

In 2011, retired Brig.-gen. Daniel Menard pleaded guilty before a military court martial to having intimate relations while leading Canada’s mission in Afghanistan, and then urging her to cover it up. His punishment included a $7,000 fine and a symbolic demotion to the rank of colonel.

In 2011, Elwy Yost, the longtime affable and enthusiastic host of Tvontario’s “Saturday Night at the Movies,”died at the age of 86. He hosted the show for 25 years before retiring in 1999.

In 2011, the federal government launched a website identifying 30 suspected war criminals in an effort to drum up new leads that could help track and deport them. Within a month, six people were apprehended.

In 2011, Pentagon chief Leon Panetta certified formally that gays can serve openly in the U.S. Armed Forces, repealing the 17-year-old don’t ask, don’t tell prohibition. (It took effect on Sept. 20.)

In 2013, Belgium’s King Albert abdicated after a 20-year reign; his son Philippe took over as the fractured nation’s seventh king.

In 2018, the U.S. scored as time expired to edge Canada 9-8 in the senior men’s gold medal game at the world field lacrosse championship in Israel.

In 2020, The $60-million acquisition of the Torstar Corp. newspaper group by Nordstar Capital LP was approved as expected, despite a last-minute revised proposal from a rival group. A preliminary count of votes tallied after a brief online meeting showed the deal recommended by Torstar’s board received the necessary support from the company’s shareholders.