Today in History for Dec. 14:
On this date:
In 1503, French physician and prophet Nostradamus was born. He remains famous today for his book “The Prophecies,” which was first published in 1555. His supporters credit it with predicting a number of major world events, including the French Revolution, the atom bomb and the rise of Adolf Hitler. But many academics say there is no proof to the claims and say they are based on misinterpretations of ambiguous statements.
In 1799, the first president of the United States, George Washington, died at his Mount Vernon, Va., home at age 67.
In 1819, Alabama joined the Union as the 22nd U.S. state.
In 1836, London's first railway began operation.
In 1851, Toronto journalist George Brown, publisher of the "Globe," was elected to Parliament for the first time, representing Kent County in the southwest part of Upper Canada (now Ontario).
In 1861, Prince Albert, Queen Victoria's husband, died of typhoid. He was 42.
In 1911, Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen became the first person to reach the South Pole. He and three companions beat British explorer Capt. Robert Falcon Scott to the Pole by 35 days. Amundsen had already gained recognition five years earlier for being the first to navigate the Northwest Passage.
In 1916, Denmark voted by plebiscite to sell its Caribbean possessions to the United States for $25 million.
In 1920, the first plane crash during a scheduled commercial flight took place in a London suburb. It killed eight of the 12 passengers on the Handley Page Continental Air Services plane, which was heading for Paris. The four survivors jumped clear just before impact.
In 1929, the federal government transferred control of natural resources to Manitoba and Alberta.
In 1934, women in Turkey were given the right to vote.
In 1939, the Soviet Union was dropped from the League of Nations.
In 1943, Quebec-born Captain Paul Triquet of the Royal 22nd Regiment won the Victoria Cross for his courage in leading the capture of the Italian town of Casa Berardi during the Second World War.
In 1945, Josef Kramer, known as "the Beast of Belsen," and 10 other Nazis were hanged for atrocities in concentration camps during the Second World War.
In 1946, the United Nations General Assembly voted to establish the UN headquarters in New York.
In 1956, John Diefenbaker was elected leader of the federal Progressive Conservative party. He became the 13th prime minister of Canada in June 1957, the first Conservative leader of the country in 22 years. His determination to guarantee human rights led to the Canadian Bill of Rights and the granting of the federal franchise to Canada's aboriginal peoples in 1960. He remained prime minister until 1963, was deposed as party leader in 1967, and died in 1979.
In 1962, the U.S. satellite "Mariner II" made the first close-up observation of Venus.
In 1970, Marc Modena, who crossed the Pacific Ocean on a raft, arrived home in Montreal. Modena, 44, and three other men had left the Ecuadorian port of Guayaquil on May 29 on a rudderless raft made of seven tree trunks. They arrived at the Australian port of Mooloobala on Nov. 6.
In 1981, Israel formally annexed the occupied Golan Heights it captured from Syria in 1967. The Syrian government called for an urgent meeting of the United Nations Security Council "as a first step toward confronting the aggressive and dangerous Israeli measure."
In 1982, a major power failure crippled most of Quebec's electricity network for several hours, leaving about six million people without heat or light.
In 1985, former New York Yankee outfielder Roger Maris died of cancer at age 51. He hit 61 home runs in 1961 to beat Babe Ruth's single-season record. (Maris' record was later broken and is currently held by Barry Bonds - 73 in 2001).
In 1886, Yoho National Park was established 25 kilometres east of Golden, B.C.
In 1988, for the first time, U.S. President Ronald Reagan authorized the State Department to enter into "substantive discussions" with PLO representatives.
In 1989, the 16-year dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet ended in Chile. Former opposition leader Patricio Aylwin was elected president in the nation's first national election in almost 20 years.
In 1989, Andrei Sakharov, a Soviet physicist and campaigner for human rights, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1975, died at the age of 68.
In 1992, Ralph Klein was sworn in as Alberta's new Progressive Conservative premier. He remained premier until his retirement in 2006.
In 1993, Daniel Johnson was acclaimed as the new leader of the Quebec Liberal party.
In 1993, Quebec MP Jean Charest was appointed interim leader of the federal Progressive Conservative Party.
In 1995, Presidents Alija Izetbegovic of Bosnia, Slobodan Milosevic of Serbia and Franjo Tudjman of Croatia signed the Bosnian peace treaty in Paris to formally end three years of war in Bosnia.
In 1998, Finance Minister Paul Martin rejected proposed mega-mergers of Canada's four biggest banks, citing concerns raised by a Competition Bureau report that bank mergers would result in the unacceptable concentration of economic power in the hands of fewer, very large banks.
In 1999, former U.S. president Jimmy Carter presided over a ceremony marking the handover of the Panama Canal to Panama. The canal ceased to be American at noon on Dec. 31.
In 1999, Charles Schulz, creator of the comic strip "Peanuts" chronicling the adventures of Lucy, Charlie Brown, Snoopy and Linus, announced his retirement due to illness after 50 years of drawing the strip. He died Feb. 12, 2000.
In 1999, U.S. and German negotiators reached a deal to establish a $5.2-billion fund to compensate former Nazi slaves and forced labourers of German Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler's war machine during the Second World War.
In 2002, the first Innu of Davis Inlet began moving into their new homes in Natuashish, a newly built community on the north coast of Labrador.
In 2002, the European Union agreed to admit 10 mainly east European states in 2004. The future EU members were Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia.
In 2004, the Millau viaduct in southwestern France, hailed as the world's tallest bridge, was inaugurated.
In 2006, South Korea's Ban Ki-moon was sworn in as the eighth secretary-general of the United Nations.
In 2006, a British police investigation report refuted conspiracy claims in Princess Diana's death nearly 10 years earlier -- calling it a "tragic accident."
In 2006, Ed Stelmach was sworn in as the 13th Premier of Alberta, succeeding four-term provincial leader Ralph Klein.
In 2008, an Iraqi journalist threw a pair of shoes at U.S. President Bush at a news conference during his farewell trip to Iraq. Muntadhar al-Zeidi's act of protest against the presence of U.S. troops in his country made him a hero for many in the Arab and Muslim worlds, where many blamed Bush for the bloodshed in Iraq. Al-Zeidi was quickly wrestled to the ground by security guards, then imprisoned for nine months.
In 2009, a federal judge struck down a national security certificate against Syrian-born Hassan Almrei, arrested eight years earlier on terror suspicions. (The case was another in a series of blows to the security certificate law, which was used to arrest and deport non-Canadians who were considered a threat to national security).
In 2010, police, members of the military, emergency workers and volunteers spent more than 24 hours working to rescue hundreds of people trapped in their vehicles overnight after a massive snowstorm and high winds shut down a highway near Sarnia, Ont.
In 2011, "The Protester" was named Time's "Person of the Year" for 2011. The news magazine cited dissent across the Middle East that spread to Europe and the U.S. and said these protesters were reshaping global politics.
In 2012, a gunman with a semi-automatic rifle killed 20 first-graders and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., then committed suicide as police arrived; the 20-year-old assailant had fatally shot his mother at their home before carrying out the attack on the school.
In 2015, the J.J. Abrams-directed "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" made its world premiere in Los Angeles. It's the seventh instalment in the space odyssey franchise and the first from Disney after purchasing Lucasfilm Ltd. for US$4 billion in 2012.
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(The Canadian Press)
The Canadian Press
